Under a Violet Sky 3
by Cassodembreankia
Summary: Violet-Sky Barton, Hawkeye's cousin and ward, has been missing for nearly a year. When the Avengers finally find her, unconscious in the desert, they are all relieved. But she didn't come home the same girl she left. (Sequel to UaVS 1&2) (Rating will probably go up to T later) (AoU SPOILERS!)
1. Chapter 1

"I'm in the middle of the Mojave, searching for heat in a desert. I see something wrong with this picture," Clint remarked into his earpiece as the ATV trundled over the sand. His thermo-vision goggles scanned the sand endlessly, sending out beacons, hoping beyond hope that she was out there somewhere.

No one had seen or heard from his little cousin, Violet-Sky, in almost a year. Summer was in full-swing and she was still gone. Soon-to-be nineteen years old, the former SHIELD agent and archer with the purple eyes and dark brown hair was missing. The Avengers had been searching the entire globe, with the help from Nick Fury, trying to track her down. But there was no trace. No sign. It was almost as though she never existed, even though the equipment and clothes she left behind suggested otherwise.

Not to mention they'd had to put off the search for a while to beat the snot out of Tony's sort-of-good-idea-gone-bad, Ultron.

"Just keep looking," Violet-Sky's boyfriend, Captain Steve Rogers, said quietly. He was somewhere nearby on a motorcycle, also running beacons and thermal scans. If she was out there and still on the planet's surface, they'd find her. Neither Hawkeye nor Captain America wanted to lose their Amethyst (but if she knew they were calling her that she'd punch them both).

 _Beep beep! Beep beep!_

Hawkeye's gaze refocused on his goggles. "Cap! Five hundred meters ahead there's a thermal signature! It's small but it's strong."

"On it!"

Clint zipped forward as the beacon got nearer and nearer. When it was ten meters away he slammed his ATV to a stop and leapt off. Without thinking or even grabbing his bow he rushed forward, tearing his goggles off. When he saw what the signature was, he collapsed to his knees.

Violet-Sky was curled up on her side, unconscious, breathing deeply, a peaceful look on her face.

Clint cradled her in his arms, trying not to cry from relief. "Cap, I found her. She's here," he murmured.

As he waited for the super soldier to make his way over, Hawkeye checked her over. She was intact. A little feverish with a spiked heart rate maybe, but intact. The burn scar all the way down her left arm from the fight with his older brother two years before looked like it was fading. There were small, almost imperceptible holes in her skin from hypodermic needles, but they were healing too.

Captain America finally jumped from his dirt bike and knelt next to Hawkeye. "We should get her to Tony and Bruce," Steve murmured.

"Bruce is still missing," Clint pointed out.

"Well then, we gotta get her to SHIELD or FitzSimmons or someone!"

"Keep your hair on, Soulja Boy," Clint snapped. "I wasn't disagreeing. I'm going to trust you to get her back to the Quinjet since you're stronger than me."

Captain America leaned forward and scooped Violet-Sky up. The first thing he was conscious of was how warm she was. Normally, because of his super-fast metabolism, he was a lot hotter than she was and she always felt like she was freezing. But not this time. She felt uncomfortably warm against the bare skin of his arms. His eyebrows scrunched and his eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, I felt that too," Clint remarked when he saw the question in Steve's face. "Feel her heart." The smaller archer was small enough that he could hold her entire body in one arm, so he shifted her to free one and pressed his palm against the center of her chest.

Despite being unconscious, her heart was racing. It seemed stronger than it had ever felt before as well.

"What did HYDRA do to her?" Steve demanded quietly.

Hawkeye shrugged, a murderous glint in his eyes. "I don't know. But whoever did it to her, I'm going to kill them and throw their body in the Mariana Trench with a millstone tied to their ankle!" he growled. The captain didn't doubt the older archer's threats one bit.

He mounted his motorcycle, carefully positioned Violet-Sky so she wouldn't fall off, and zipped away from Clint, heading back for the Quinjet they'd left with Violet-Sky's old trainer Tristan several miles back.

Hawkeye paused for a moment, eyes looking for tracks around where she'd been lying. Nothing. Probably blown away in the wind. He cursed under his breath and stormed off.

* * *

The Quinjet breezed into its landing at Avengers Tower and rested on the ground with barely a jolt. Steve hadn't let Violet-Sky go the entire ride across the country and only released her when a woman and a few other doctors, including Tony Stark, ordered him to put her on the stretcher so they could give her medical attention.

The other Avengers gathered over the course of the young woman's examination in the room where they'd first met Ultron and sat together in intense silence. Steve's hands were clenched into fists on his knees and Hawkeye was pacing. Black Widow was drinking something pink that looked like lemonade, Bruce was missing, and Thor was physically trying not to snap. They'd all grown very fond of Violet-Sky over the past few years and no one was telling them anything. Nothing was more frustrating. Tony's voice occasionally crackled over the intercom with a joke or something while they examined Violet-Sky. Once in a while they could hear, " _You're okay, Vi. You're gonna be okay."_

Finally, Steve couldn't stand it. He marched out to the balcony and gripped the railing so hard he dented it. Clint joined him after a moment, leaning back against the glass idly, staring back at the glass of the building. He sighed.

"She's a fighter, Steve," Clint murmured quietly. "She's a fighter." He sounded more like he was trying to reassure himself more than Captain America. "She'll fight to the end."

"Clint," Steve remarked. "It's okay. I know she'll be okay."

"Yeah. Yeah. She'll be okay," Clint muttered.

* * *

Violet-Sky's dreams were plagued as the doctors started to make sure she'd be okay. She started convulsing. " _It's not because of us! It must be something in her mind!"_ She heard it as though through cotton, pushing through into her dreams.

 _Looney Tunes Band-Aids all over her legs, one or two on her arms. Lying on a gurney, thrashing. Pain in every limb. Heart beating faster than she knew her body could safely handle. "She's a fighter. She'll be alright. Look! She's already pushing through!" There was that voice—the one with the foreign lilt. She lifted her eyes and closed them, losing herself in her memories. Cuddling with Steve, watching_ Phantom of the Opera _in Tony's basement. Kissing him—multiple times—the first being on that dance floor in that ridiculous but oddly beautiful red dress. It helped her get through the torture of that sick, sick man's experiments on her._

 _"She's coming up!"_ Through cotton in her ears she heard voices. _"Someone tell the Avengers! She's fighting!"_

 _"Vi! Come on kiddo! You can make it! Come back to us."_

"Vi?" The cotton was being removed. She could feel herself surfacing.

As her eyes drifted open, the only thing she saw were two sets of blue-gray eyes.

* * *

 **End Note: GGGGUUUUUYYYYYSSSSS! GUESS WHO'S BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!? So, I thought I'd put this one up _now_ instead of later because I have a LOT of chapters already written even though I still have no idea where the heck this thing is going. It's been so much fun to write for the last several weeks! I hope you guys enjoy!**

 **For those of you who don't know and don't read description/summaries, this is the sequel to my Under a Violet Sky series. In fact, this is the third one. I suppose you don't _have_ to go back and read UaVS 1 &2... but I would highly recommend it so you know who Violet-Sky is and everything that's happened up until this point. Honestly it shouldn't take you very long to read them. Coupled together they're about 80+ chapters with roughly 1,000 words in each chapter.**

 **For those of you who do know and/or have already read UaVS 1 &2, WELCOME BACK! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY HIATUS AND ARE FULLY PREPARED TO JUMP BACK IN! I KNOW I AM!**

 **Thanks for reading! See you soon!**

 **~Cass**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: I wasn't going to publish this one this early because I put the other one up like two days ago (or so - it's summer so don't expect me to keep track) but I wanted to give you guys something new.**

* * *

Clint and Steve watched the purple eyes flutter open lightly for a moment before closing heavily. Steve grabbed one of her hands, lacing his fingers through hers. Clint held the other one. Captain America and Hawkeye waited with baited breath. She was battered and beaten, scraped up, bleeding. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were the same ones she'd been wearing when she'd gone missing a year before—or at least, they assumed they were. No one had seen her the morning she'd gone missing. It looked like an outfit she'd wear though—Natasha thought she might have seen it in Violet-Sky's closet once.

Violet-Sky felt her mind clearing. The fog was lifting and she could hear Disney playing in the background.

"Head… hurts…" she muttered. Her mouth was dry—like there were cotton balls in her mouth. "Are my wisdom teeth out now?"

"Hahaha, very funny Vi," Steve snapped.

"She wasn't joking," Clint remarked.

"My mouth's sore," Violet-Sky groaned.

"I know baby," Clint murmured. "It's okay. Come back to us." Steve clutched her hand tighter.

"Come on, Vi. I miss you. I love you, sweetheart," Captain Rogers whispered.

"Okay. Okay. I'm up. When does class start?" she muttered sarcastically.

"In two hours. So get going!" Tony remarked sarcastically, strutting into the room with a sparkly pink shirt on. "Thought I'd give you a bit of a show for your first morning back in a year!" Apparently that got Violet-Sky interested enough to open her eyes for good. She started giggling, cringing.

"Careful," one of the doctors scolded. "She has three cracked ribs and a small tear in her large intestine's wall. She can't afford to laugh, just yet."

"But she's healing rapidly. Almost… inhumanly so," another doctor put in.

"She's not Inhuman," Clint told them. "She's ordinary."

"Not anymore," the first doctor said. "Whatever HYDRA did to her… she's not the same as she once was. I'm sorry. We'll let you talk before we order her to get some rest." The medical team filed out of the room as the other Avengers squeezed in. Violet-Sky looked around at all of them, eyes expressing a hundred swirling emotions but mouth staying shut. Staying silent. She watched carefully for several moments before she dared open her lips.

"Is this real?" she whispered. "Or is this another hallucination? Another dream of happiness—of being found—to cope with the pain?"

"It's real, Vi. We're all here. For you. We found you out in the Mojave, unconscious," Clint answered. "And you're safe now. You're alright. We're never going to let you go, ever again." Violet-Sky gave a single burst in lieu of an appreciative chuckle.

"Don't worry," Violet-Sky muttered, irritated. "I'm not particularly inclined to leave as of right now. My legs hurt."

Her family and friends laughed at her attempt at humor.

* * *

A few days, and a couple stories about the Maximoffs, later, she was allowed to leave the hospital wing of the Avengers Tower and get back on her feet. The first thing she did was run. Run through the hallways, up and down the stairs. Racing Captain Rogers. At first, she did what she'd always done—fall far behind with no hope of catching up.

But then the distance between her and her boyfriend got smaller and smaller.

Soon they were running hand-in-hand. Steve gave her a very confused look when she laced her fingers with his. "What the—?" he demanded. Violet-Sky laughed heartily. "You're not supposed to be fast enough to reach me!"

"Well too bad because I'm here now!" she exclaimed. They skidded to a stop at the beginning of one very long corridor. "Race you to the end?" Steve grinned and nodded. "Okay. Three… two… one!"

They took off. Violet-Sky closed her eyes for a moment, feeling her heart pounding and her legs pumping. Her arms were pushing madly at her sides. When she opened her eyes, she felt her breath in her lungs and the air moving through her eyelashes. A smile pulled up her face. She ran harder. There was no way she was going to lose right then. She was going to win against her boyfriend. She wanted to run. She'd never felt it so strongly before—but she had felt it once, a very long time ago when she had first joined SHIELD. Before Tristan would let her train on her bow, she had to run for hours and hours before she could do anything interesting. It was during that time she felt the urge. It had been powerful. _Hurry, rush, run, go!_ Her blood sang with the adrenaline—harmonies and all.

She was feeling it again. And it felt good.

"Lock her up!" a voice suddenly shouted. They were in the hospital wing. Steve grabbed her around the waist and the knees. "She's dangerous! Something's not right!" It was the voice of one of the doctors. In her soldier's arms, they stopped.

"We're not locking her up!" Steve snapped, curling her closer to him.

"We have to! We don't know what they've done to her!" the doctor argued.

Violet-Sky jumped out of Captain America's arms. "I do," she replied calmly. Steve's eyebrows raised.

"And you didn't tell us?" he demanded.

"You didn't ask. I thought it'd be the first thing out of your mouths but… no one asked what they did to me. Not while I was awake anyway. So I decided to wait until you asked."

"CLINT!" Steve shouted, voice carrying to the intercom and across the whole Tower.

"Yo?" the archer's voice crackled from the speakers.

"Violet-Sky knows what they did to her."

"WHAT?!"

"Get down here and I'll tell you," she retorted sassily.

Only moments later Hawkeye burst out of the elevator and grabbed Violet-Sky's shoulders. "Why did you not tell me, kiddo?" he demanded forcefully. Violet-Sky shrugged and rubbed her nose.

"You didn't ask," she repeated.

"Well… what did they do to you?" he asked, gentler this time.

Violet-Sky lifted up the baggy basketball shorts she was wearing, revealing small, almost indiscernible pock marks on her thighs. Repeated injections from hypodermic needles. Clint bent to look at them. "Remember Pietro?" she inquired calmly.

"Yeah…" Hawkeye and Captain Rogers chorused.

"They did the same thing to me," she told them.

* * *

 **End Note: Dun-Dun-Duuuuuunnnnn! Sorry-not-sorry for the cliffhanger! I'll see you guys soon!**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Thought I'd put this up close to my last update so no one forgets the big reveal. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Violet-Sky shrugged again while Clint and Steve's jaws dropped to the floor. "I uh… I guess it's kind of a big deal, then?" she asked. Her cousin nodded emphatically.

"Uh… _yeah!"_ he practically shouted.

"Will you show me?" Steve asked, quietly.

Violet-Sky blinked once, her purple eyes glistening with excitement. "Sure," she replied with a smile.

"You're not at all afraid of your powers?" Natasha asked over the intercom.

"I was, at first. When I was running around the cell faster that I could even comprehend and smashing into the walls—which was painful, by the way. But once I accepted that the change was irreversible, it wasn't too bad."

"How come your hair is the same color?" a new voice with an accent asked over the intercom, sounding oddly familiar. "Pietro's hair changed colors."

Violet-Sky froze. She'd been gearing into her running position but straightened up. "Wanda? Is that you?"

"You know her?" Clint demanded.

"Her cell was two down from mine for the year—Pietro's was in between us. We went through some of the experiments together. We became all we had. That's how I knew what they did to him," Violet-Sky answered. She turned towards a microphone. "I don't know why mine stayed the same. I liked your brother's lighter though. It looked nice." She turned back to her boyfriend and her guardian. "Where is he anyway? Aren't they usually attached at the hip?"

Clint leaned closer to her ear. "He's dead. He died protecting me in Sokovia."

Violet-Sky seemed to deflate. "Oh. That's awful. He always had something witty to say for everything. I'm going to miss him," she said quietly.

"Anyway!" Steve barked, trying to lighten the mood. "Show me!"

Violet-Sky took a deep breath, feeling the world around her slow down. She prepped her legs, bending forward, staring straight ahead. She remembered being in the courtyard of that freezing cold castle in Sokovia, striking up the same position, feeling Pietro prepare beside her. They were going to race. It was one of the few times the three of them were let out of their cells. She could feel the shifting in his powerful muscles beside her, the anxiety and impatience—something she knew she would probably soon share. She remembered the biting winter and the falling snow. She remembered Wanda's measured eyes, watching them tensely. She remembered the world slowing down until it went frame-by-frame. She remembered the very first click of the gun that was to set them in motion.

Her focus snapped back to reality and she took off at full-speed, a blur of vibrant violet behind her much as Pietro's had been silver-blue.

She shifted her mind from fast-mode to normal-mode so she felt the speed. Normally she felt like she was running at a normal pace and the rest of the world just couldn't manage to catch up. But she liked her mind running at the world's speed while her feet ran even faster. Made her powers more enjoyable. What kid didn't dream of running at hyper-fast-speeds so they didn't have to wake up as early to get ready?

She wove through the hallways and up and down stairs, just as she had done before, except now she felt the wind in her hair and the adrenaline surging through her veins as her heart raced her feet. She ran into Tony and Bruce's lab—though Dr. Banner was still missing—sending paper flying. She breezed like a gust of wind through the parlor where Natasha was waking up with some coffee—which Violet-Sky was allergic to so she wasn't tempted to do anything like drink it. She braided Thor's hair before he realized she'd even entered his gym, and she jumped into Steve's arms when she completed her circuit. She hadn't found Wanda though, and that was disappointing. She really wanted to see the younger twin again.

Steve set her down. "Impressive, Vi," he commented, kissing her forehead. "Truly remarkable."

Violet-Sky felt her cheeks blush like some schoolgirl. "Thanks."

"Violet-Sky," a voice said from behind them. She whirled around with a purple streak following to see Wanda Maximoff. A smile lit up the young girl's face. She rushed forward and threw her arms around the woman's shoulders in a firm hug.

"It's so good to see you! When they let you two out and I never saw you again I started to panic and then the next thing I knew I was bound in the back of a truck and then a plane and then I must have been drugged because I woke up here and I don't know how long I was out." She pulled back and looked the new Avenger in the face. "I'm so sorry about Pietro. You know I cared about him too right?" Wanda nodded and hugged Violet-Sky again.

"Yes. I know."

"He died a hero's death. He deserved it."

"Thank you, Violet-Sky." The purple-eyed girl nodded into her friend's shoulder. "And not just for your condolences. I have to thank you for your humor in those dark times and your strength and your will to keep fighting. You kept both me and Pietro going."

"Mm-hmm." Violet-Sky nodded again, trying not to cry. Seeing Wanda not only brought back memories of racing Pietro and the lame jokes she'd crack when they were all alone in their cells, but also the memories of scalpels and needles and bright lights and lots of Looney Tunes Band-Aids. What was it with HYDRA and Looney Tunes? There had been some times when Pietro and Wanda had needed to keep her going because she felt like giving up. But for the most part, she was a fighter and she hadn't rolled over to die.

Wanda, being mildly telepathic, felt all of Violet-Sky's memories rush back in. "Sorry. I do not mean to—"

"No. No. It's fine," Violet-Sky replied. "Anything can trigger memories. Doesn't matter. Time to move on. Heck, maybe I'll do that better now that I'm faster," she joked. Wanda smiled.

"I see you've met the Scarlet Witch," Tony remarked, coming into the hallway where they were all gathered.

Violet-Sky gave her friend an impressed look. "Is that what they're calling you?" she asked, almost teasingly. "Not gonna lie, that's pretty bad-a!" Wanda laughed lightly before her face fell into a grounded, sort of flat mask of indifference Violet-Sky had seen when she was suppressing bad memories. They were probably both remembering the laughs when they were in their cells and there would be a bad pun or a cheesy joke—something to lighten the pain they were going through. At least Wanda and her brother had volunteered. Violet-Sky had never been allowed to tell them she was kidnapped. If she tried she'd get electrocuted.

"What about you? Do you have a name?" Wanda asked mischievously.

Violet-Sky shook her head. "Two years ago I suggested Amethyst but that is _so_ _terrible_ that I can't stay on that. I haven't decided yet." Wanda chuckled.

"We will have to find something fitting for you."

"Eventually, yeah."

"Right. Heads back in the game here!" Clint said loudly to pull their attention back.

"He's right," Tony said. "Now we have another kid with superpowers to deal with."

Violet-Sky rolled her eyes and turned to look at the billionaire. "I'm not a kid anymore, Tony," she snapped, sounding irritated.

"Fine. Just promise me something," Iron Man retorted.

"Depends on what it is," Violet-Sky said sassily.

"Don't run at full-speed inside."

Violet-Sky laughed. "I promise."

* * *

 **End Note: So... I _was_ going to do my best to write Wanda's voice with an accent... but... that just proved too difficult for me. To make up for it, I've decided to write her voice without usual English contractions (don't, can't, I'm, etc.) because English is a second-language for her and I figure she's probably not used to contracting words to make them shorter. You probably wouldn't've (strictly speaking, that's actually an allowed contraction - how weird is that?!) even noticed, but I thought I'd tell you anyway so you know I did put _some sort of effort_ into showing that Wanda isn't American (even though her actress is, but whatever!).**

 **I would like to formally thank everyone who has reviewed, followed, and faved this story so early on in the game. You guys are awesome and I'm glad you're at least somewhat interested in knowing what comes next! Tell me what you thought about this one and I look forward to hearing your opinions!**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: I'm back! Sorry this took a bit longer than I'd hoped, I've had walking pneumonia for the past three weeks and this week has been the worst of the symptoms so it's taken longer for me to find creative juices. But, I've now seen Ant-Man twice and so I'm back! (This takes place before the events of Ant-Man, by the way.) And we get to see an old friend from UaVS2 pop back in for a moment! Yay!**

* * *

Unsure of what oh-dark-hour in the morning it was, Violet-Sky rolled out of her comfortable bed in Avengers Tower. She hadn't slept well anyway—not after a year of a cot. Steve had mentioned something about a new Avengers facility somewhere in upstate New York, and she was determined to find it. She slid her feet through a pair of running shorts and yanked a T-shirt on over her workout tank top. On went her socks and favorite pair of old running shoes. The wind would be cold so a jacket would be good—but she'd be moving so fast that she probably would overheat. Her thermal homeostasis was actually really good, but she still managed to get too hot if she ran too far.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she'd promised Tony she wouldn't run full-speed inside the Tower, but he was asleep—and the new program that ran the place, FRIDAY, was shut down for the night.

Violet-Sky missed JARVIS. She hadn't had the pleasure of meeting the Vision yet, but she missed JARVIS.

And since FRIDAY was asleep, she bolted down a gazillion flights of stairs, out of the city, and down a boring country road that led farther and farther north. Her braid bounced between her shoulder blades with each step and the wind rushed over her face and through her lungs. The purplish blur behind her was almost completely unseen since there was no one around to see it.

When she reached a place she would have liked to call Middle-of-Nowhere, NY, she slowed to a stop.

Someone was standing in the middle of the road she was running on.

"Bucky," she murmured quietly.

His face was impassive, as always, but the corners of his mouth were slightly tilted up.

"You're alive," he commented. "And you have powers."

"Yeah. I hate HYDRA but they gave me a gift. A knife, so to think. The gift itself isn't evil. It just depends on what I choose to do with it." She took a few steps closer to him and held out her arms. "It's good to see you. When do I get to tell Steve you were looking out for me?"

The Winter Soldier shook his head. "You can't tell him. Not yet."

"But—"

"Violet-Sky," the man interrupted. "He can't know. I don't even remember him well. All I remember is I once trusted him—which is why I chose to trust you. If I ever get my memories back I'll show myself to him. But not now. And the man with the winged suit has been looking for me. So I can't stay here for long. I just heard that you were back and different and thought I should come see you for myself." He stepped closer and let her hug him. His metal arm wrapped around her shoulders, the normal one just under it. "I think I'm glad you're back, Violet-Sky."

"Well, if you're not sure, just know that I'm glad to be back—and if you ever need my help again…"

"I'll contact you." He let go and vanished into the night.

Violet-Sky took off again, searching the northern end of the state for the new Avengers facility, trying to find it all on her own.

Finally, she came across a ranch-like property with a massive wall around it and a gate. Approaching the panel, she inspected it. Thumb-print and retinal scanners, and a keypad for a PIN. Violet-Sky shrugged. She was an honorary Avenger. If this was the wrong place then she'd just run away, but if it was the right one she'd probably be let in. Lifting her hand, she put her thumb on the little black spot and rested her eyes in front of the camera-things. Her other hand was busy typing in the PIN she didn't remember Tony giving her but knew he had done long, long ago.

"Agent Violet-Sky Barton," a cool female voice that wasn't quite FRIDAY remarked.

"That's me," she muttered. The gates opened and she ran through.

The place was nice, she was going to admit. There were rooms for each Avenger and a huge gymnasium with specialized equipment for everyone's different skills—there was even a smaller archery range tucked in the back with her name on it and tape keeping others out. The targets, the arrows, the bows, they all looked like they'd been untouched. Violet-Sky felt a bit teary that they'd left it for her. She actually felt touched that they made one for her. She wasn't technically a real Avenger.

 _Of course,_ she thought, _they'll have to add a track for me now. Or a treadmill that can handle up to and beyond the speed of sound._ The thought amused her. She'd have to ask Tony to get to work on one when she got back. He'd probably have fun with that. A new challenge.

The first few hints of sunrise started to think about making their appearances. A single ray of pink dawned off in the east. Violet-Sky sighed and bolted out of the facility, knowing the way back to the Tower better than she knew the way to the new building. But she wasn't going to say anything to anyone about her brief visit.

FRIDAY was still shut off when she got back, so after thanking her lucky stars, she zipped up the stairs and into her bedroom on her very own floor. The summer lights of dawn, earlier than she would have liked, filtered through the tinted window like a pleasant but unwelcome greeting. She rolled so her back was to the window, pulled her covers up over her running clothes—that weren't even sweaty despite running almost the entire area of New York State—closed her eyes, and finally managed to drift off to sleep. She knew she'd be woken soon, but she felt a deep state of relaxation she was planning on fully enjoying.

So when Tony burst into her room singing a song from Hairspray at the top of his lungs, all she did was groan, roll over, sit up in bed, and look at him. After a moment of silence, she sighed. "Now what?" she muttered groggily.

* * *

 **End Note: So, with the very vague second end credits scene in Ant-Man, this happens before that. So... yeah. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about it. If you haven't, I don't think I spoiled anything...?**

 **Thanks for reading! Love y'all!**

 **~Cass**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: *hides behind the Avengers as you all throw books and bricks at me for taking so long* I'm sorry guys! I went on vacation and then I freaking moved down to college. I'm in college now! AAHHH! Suffice to say I'm terrified. So I'll try and update regularly better because I've gotten a form of routine back, but don't hate me if I take several months off. I've never been in college before and I don't exactly know what to do. I love you guys! (Does that help? No? Okay. *continues to hide behind Avengers*)**

* * *

"Hey Tony?" Violet-Sky asked after breakfast. "Is there any way to build a treadmill or an elliptical or something that can handle something like two thousand miles per hour?" He stared at her. "Because I can run about as fast as a bullet, and those travel at about one-thousand-seven-hundred. Plus I'm hoping to get faster." She grinned at him while the gears turned in the genius's head. He was thinking deeply about how he could possibly get it to work.

"You know, Baby Barton, I think I can manage something like that," he decided.

Violet-Sky giggled excitedly and gave him a hug. "Thank you!" She ran off at a normal human pace so as not to violate her promise again—even though Tony didn't know about the first one.

She skidded to a stop on the ground floor of Stark Tower to see Sam and Steve getting ready to go out on a run. Steve was wearing his gray SHIELD Under Armour shirt and sweats, Sam in his Para-Rescue sweatshirt and shorts. "Hey Violet-Sky," Sam greeted. They'd never met but in the year she was missing Steve had shown him pictures and talked about her. And she'd seen him in pictures when she'd come home.

"Hello Sam!" she replied brightly. She turned to Steve. "Could you two use one more?"

Steve raised his eyebrows sarcastically. "Why?"

"I gotta run. Gotta burn off some energy _somehow_ ," she answered with the same sarcastic tone.

Sam's eyebrows furrowed—obviously he didn't know about her powers. "I don't see why you couldn't come," he commented. Violet-Sky grinned and nodded appreciatively at him. She turned back to Steve. She didn't need his approval to go running with them, she just thought she'd be nice.

Finally the super soldier sighed heavily. "Fine. You can come," he said.

"Yay!" she exclaimed. "How about I give you two a head start? How does forty-five seconds sound?"

Sam, still ignorant of Steve's exasperated looks, shrugged. "Why not?" he remarked.

"Awesome! See ya in a bit!" She bent down to tie her shoes while the men jogged off.

When the allotted time passed, she took off down the street. Her boyfriend and his friend hadn't quite gotten out of sight yet. So she slowed from one-thousand-seven-hundred MPH to about four-hundred-and-fifty. She wove through New Yorkers walking until she got closer to them. Steve had pulled ahead slightly.

"ON YOUR LEFT!" she shouted as she blasted past Sam. "ON YOUR RIGHT!" she shouted as her blur went past Steve. Her boyfriend cursed and Sam just stared at her purple streak as she circled the block and lapped them again with an "ON YOUR RIGHT!" and an "ON YOUR LEFT!" That time both men cursed.

By the time they finished their run, around a half-hour later, she had run many times the amount of Steve and about a thousand the distance of Sam. She took the elevator to the cafeteria and wolfed down several thousand calories in order to replenish her blood sugar. When Steve and Sam made their way up, they glared at her. "You just had to go and show off, didn't you?" Steve exclaimed exasperatedly. Violet-Sky laughed and continued to eat, using her super speed to finish as soon as possible. When she was done, she gave Steve a kiss and patted Sam's head before going normal pace to find Tony.

She found him with Clint in the lab near the top of the building. "Hi!" she greeted loudly, causing Clint to start.

"Morning. You're chipper," he replied.

"I went on a run with Steve and Sam. I think I ran about five hundred miles. Mostly in circles. Started off full-speed then slowed down then sped up. It was a very invigorating way to get going. Then, of course, I have to eat my weight in calories to replenish my blood sugar and all that jazz, but still. I like running." She paused for a moment. "Or, at least, I do now. I used to hate it when all the training Tristan was giving me was just running. Building up my stamina or something like that. Now it's not too bad." For a moment the speedster swayed dangerously on her feet, as though she was going to pass out.

"Running must take a lot out of you. Sit down," Tony and Clint both insisted. Clint took her upper arms and guided her to a chair. She sat down and watched them watch her pant. She loved her powers, but it was true that they were draining. It wasn't just the calories she needed. It was energy. And she was allergic to caffeine so she wasn't getting any stimulation there. And she didn't believe in using things like that anyway. She hadn't had her powers for long. Her body was just catching up with them. Sure she was able to withstand the speeds, but she was exhausted afterwards. It was at its worst when she'd first woken up in that cold cell and was suddenly banging against the walls, unable to control herself. She'd slept for several days after Strucker let her and Pietro out to race once. He'd been faster and better at recovering. She'd passed out the second the race was over.

The thought of Pietro made her heartstrings tug. He was dead. The snarky, cocky young man who had been one of her only friends in that year of living torture was gone. Sure Violet-Sky thought of Wanda as a sister but it wasn't the same. She and Pietro had shared something no one else in the world could—running. The feeling of the wind rushing over their faces, through their hair, whipping their clothes behind them. Not even Wanda could fully understand what that felt like. Pietro hadn't been a brother to Violet-Sky in that year. He'd been more. A bonded soul with a connection that could never be broken. Not even by death.

"Yeah, it does," she whispered. "But sometimes, when I have too much pent-up energy, running is the only thing to remedy it."

"I guess it's time to come up with a name for you. Hawkeye Junior isn't really fitting anymore," Tony remarked. Violet-Sky slapped him in the arm.

"Excuse me!" she protested. "Just because I now have superpowers doesn't mean that I no longer remember how to shoot my bow and shoot it well!" The sass in her voice made it seem like very old times—like nothing had changed. Tony put his hands up as though he was surrendering.

"Okay Baby Barton. I just think it's time for you to have a name."

Violet-Sky got back to her feet. "Permission to break my promise in order to go and take a shower?" she asked.

"You're already exhausted. Permission denied," Tony retorted. Violet-Sky rolled her eyes and stalked out of the lab. "Before you go though, I've almost got a schematic for a treadmill ready!" She nodded and left. Once she was out of sight, she ran at about fifty miles per hour down the stairs and onto her floor. She stripped off her running clothes and took a brief shower, cleaning off all the sweat and casting her memories back to Pietro Maximoff—or Quicksilver as the others had come to know him by. She'd have to do something to honor his memory. Getting out of the shower, she dried off and wrapped a towel around her body and another around her hair. She put her shorts and shirt in the laundry and got dressed in a new pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

"Vi?" Steve's voice asked over the intercom.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"I want to talk to you about something."

"Where are you?"

"The garage."

"Be there in a minute."

"No running in the building!"

* * *

 **End Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Sorry I didn't reply to like any of them. Just know that I love and appreciate every single one of them And I love and appreciate every single person who reads/likes/follows/favorites/etc my stories. It's nice to know people want to read things I've written.**

 **Thank you so much for reading!**

 **~Cass**

 **(PS, check out my very super-long story "Cass's Collection" if you want to read a bunch of Loki/Quicksilver one-shots!)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: It's been a while, sorry. I promise I still love you guys!**

* * *

Violet-Sky rolled her eyes. "I won't!" Using her speed she combed and braided her hair. Once she was done she trotted to the elevator. The ride was uneventful but halfway there she had an epiphany. _Wanda? Can you hear me?_ She sent her thoughts out through the building as best as she could guess.

 _Yes,_ came the young woman's voice, accent and all.

 _I'm thinking of holding a vigil for Pietro tonight. Staying up all night, lighting candles, that sort of thing. Just by myself. If you'd like to join me, you're welcome to._

 _No, thank you, Violet-Sky. I have grieved. Now it is time to let you do the same._

 _Okay. Just thought I'd invite you._

 _Thank you. I will make sure you are left alone, but I will not join._

 _Thank you, Wanda._

The elevator made a pleasant ding as it hit the bottommost floor of the building. She stepped out to see Steve leaned against the bed of a massive black truck. She grinned and ran over to him as fast as she dared—about four-hundred miles per hour. She snuggled against him. "You're not supposed to run in the building Little Miss Quick Legs," he teased.

"We're not in the building," she retorted. "We're _under_ it." He cradled her face with a grin. "So what did you want to talk about?" She sounded breathless.

"We haven't had a minute alone since you got back. I just wanted to—" He cut himself off by kissing her, deeply. Her hands slid up his arms until they rested on his powerful shoulders. She could feel his muscles tensing and releasing as his hands held both sides of her face.

Because of Cap's usual moral high ground, they'd never really gone past a deep kiss. Never any further.

But Steve must have been as starved for her as she'd felt for him during that year because his usual reservations were abandoned. Even though neither really knew what they were doing, the deep kiss went two steps further to heavy making out. Hungrily testing how far the other was willing to go before one of them drew back. Steve even picked her up by her legs and set her in the truck bed so they were nearer the same height. She pressed herself against him by sliding her hands to his back and pushing him closer. He held her face in a gentle but strong, relentless grip. Their mouths' ceaseless movement and their mental distraction was partially making it difficult to breathe, but neither of them cared.

Violet-Sky's mind briefly flashed to one of the moments she and Pietro were out of their cells while Wanda was still in hers, "playing" with the wooden blocks. Both of them had been cut off from human contact for months. The only touches they received were from scalpels and latex gloves. No skin. They hugged each other so hard they probably left hairline fractures in each other's ribs. Then they kissed each other—hard. Violet-Sky told herself it was because lips had more nerve endings than anything else in the body and contact there felt good. But she guessed the real reason. Even though she wasn't technically single, she may have fallen a bit for the young man with the silvery-white hair and electric blue eyes.

She pulled away from Steve first, withdrawing her hands from his back to rest them on his chest. "Wait," she breathed. "I have to tell you something. And if I don't tell you now, I may never tell you. And I don't want that because you deserve to know."

"What?" Steve asked, confused at what she was saying.

"This past year… while I was in Sokovia…" She paused. Had she not been so uncomfortable telling this she probably would have rubbed her nose or her ear to show how awkward she felt. "I uh… I kissed Pietro Maximoff." Her eyes were closed with distress and something that felt like fear. So she felt rather than saw Steve redden. His skin heated up through his shirt.

"What?" He sounded a bit concerned.

"Occasionally Strucker would let Pietro and I out of our cells to race—see who was faster and burn off some energy. One time, for a few minutes, we weren't being monitored at all. I think we were both starved for human contact since the only sense of touch we'd had were needles, scalpels, and rubber gloves. We hugged for a moment—hard enough to probably crack our ribs—and then we kissed. I kept telling myself it was because the mouth is the most sensitive spot on the body and senses there are more intense and we needed that. But… the truth is… I don't know if I was lying," she explained. She felt tears of her own confusion swimming to her eyes. She laid her forehead against Captain America's collar bones and shook her head. "I'm sorry. It was just sudden and I felt horrible afterwards like I was betraying you or cheating on you or—"

Steve's hand lifted up to cover her mouth. "Listen to me, Vi," he said tenderly. "I don't blame you for _anything_ that happened this past year. You kissed Quicksilver. So what? He's dead." Violet-Sky winced. That was a very abrupt way to talk about her friend—and it kind of stung. "It's not like he's here to compete for your heart. If he was, I think Clint would have a heart attack." She found it in her to chuckle lightly. "And I'd probably throw him out a window." He stroked the side of her face and tilted her chin up to look at him. "And you know what else?"

"What?" Violet-Sky's voice sounded raw with emotion.

"I've kissed other people too. Peggy, Natasha, and that one girl Natasha set me up with who was honestly slightly frightening with how forward she was. Though that was more of a 'she kissed me' situation. Just because you'd only kissed me up to that point doesn't mean that you weren't allowed to kiss the Maximoff kid. I don't consider it a betrayal or cheating. I understand the want for human contact. I'm not going to hold it against you, but I'm glad you told me. You'll feel better. But you know what?"

"What?"

"Don't tell Clint. He'll have a conniption. Partially because he and Pietro didn't seem to get along too well." Violet-Sky laughed, two tears making it to her cheeks. Steve wiped them away with his thumbs. She grabbed his face and kissed him, grateful for his kindness and willingness to forgive her. "I'm going to admit though that I'm jealous he got to kiss you during that year," he added, kissing her harder and letting it slip back into making out.

" _What do you two think you're doing?!"_

* * *

 **End Note: Heehee.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: I keep meaning to put this up on the weekends, and then I get distracted and forget. I'm terribly sorry. I promise I still love you guys!**

* * *

Almost instantly Violet-Sky had her back against the back of the truck's cab, several feet away from Steve. Clint was standing at the entrance to the garage, keys to his boring black sedan hanging limply from his hand. His face was red. Violet-Sky shook her head. "Nothing," she answered. "We're not doing anything. Just talking."

Clint raised one eyebrow. "Yeah. That definitely looked like nothing and talking," he remarked sarcastically.

"I can explain everything," Steve started. The archer held up his hand.

"Don't wanna hear it Spangles," he snapped. "Just know that just because I don't have my bow doesn't mean I can't put something through your brain."

"Yes sir," Steve said, tone tinted with sarcasm.

"While I've got you here, Vi," Clint continued. "There's something I need to talk to you about. Get in the car."

"Yes sir," Violet-Sky copied. She hopped out of the truck bed, kissed Steve on the nose, and got into her cousin's sedan. Steve winked at her while she waited for Clint to catch up to her speed. Once he did, they pulled out of the garage so fast they practically peeled out. In the rearview mirror Violet-Sky saw Steve blow a kiss and wave. She grinned and pretended to catch it.

They drove a long time. Because her mind worked faster than it used to, the several-hour road trip felt like it was lasting for eternity. They left the city behind, and then the suburbs, and then they were driving out in flat, boring landscapes, heading farther and farther into the Middle of Nowhere.

"Where are we going?" she groaned.

"You told me your new secret. It's time I tell you an older one," Clint replied.

"Huh?" Violet-Sky asked eloquently.

"You'll see," Clint said. She rolled her eyes at him. If that wasn't the most boring answer ever!

* * *

They finally arrived at a farmhouse. Violet-Sky's eyebrows lifted. "What's this?"

"My secret," her cousin answered, getting out of the car. He circled it and opened her door. Cautiously she got out. He approached the door while she hung back a couple paces. When he didn't even knock and just entered, she sped up to be right behind him.

She was greeted by a woman holding a baby in her arms and two children—a boy and a girl.

"Violet-Sky, this is Laura, Lila, Cooper, and Nathaniel Pietro Barton," Clint introduced. Violet-Sky felt her heartstrings twinge. "Laura, kids, this is Violet-Sky Barton."

Violet-Sky felt her blood run cold. The day had been an emotional roller coaster for her. First the fun she had after her run, then the thrill of kissing Steve, then the hurt of admitting her brief kiss with Pietro, then the boredom of the drive to the farmhouse, and now this. The clenching in her chest she felt staring at the children who all shared features with the only family she knew and the woman in front of her was an emotion she'd never really felt before—betrayal.

The woman—Laura—stepped forward, shifting the baby slightly and putting one arm out as though to hug the younger archer. "It's so nice to finally meet you. Clint's told me a lot about you." She was kind, gentle, and motherly. Violet-Sky took a step back, towards the door. The sting of that betrayed feeling cut deeper. So they knew about her but she had no idea they existed until that moment.

The tears that rushed to her eyes were angry and hurt. She blinked hard to get them out of her vision and brushed them away impatiently—all in just a blur so no one would see. She gave her guardian a look that was lost and wounded.

She turned on her heel and rushed out the door at a human pace, stopping at the trunk of her cousin's car.

"Vi!" he shouted, coming outside after her.

"You said we were all that each other had!" she exploded, whirling around."And all this time you had a wife and kids to protect too!"

"Vi, just listen to me!" Clint protested. "I didn't want to tell you before because—"

"I don't care!" she spat. "You lied to me!"

"Vi, please!"

"Don't call me that!" she snapped, face an angry red.

"Violet-Sky Barton!" Clint retorted. "I didn't tell you because I didn't know about you. If you could handle it with the death of your parents. You needed a strong rock to ground yourself on while you got your feet back under you. I had to be that. And if I'd instantly introduced you to my secret family, that rock would have turned to sand and you could have spun out of control. Then, working in the field with you and sometimes Tristan, it just never seemed like the right time. Then SHIELD fell and you went on your adventure with Steve and then Loki happened and then we were all hiding from HYDRA and then you were kidnapped. It was never the right time! And now is!"

"That doesn't change anything," Violet-Sky murmured, voice quiet and injured. "You didn't know how strong I was. If you'd instantly introduced me to your family, I would have taken them in as my own. You've been like a second father to me. Laura could have been the second mother. You had a choice to make, Clinton Barton. And you made the wrong one." She made a bitter burst of laughter escape her throat. "I guess if you ever need a babysitter consider me there, but you should have told me. It would have been easier and I wouldn't feel so betrayed."

She turned towards the way they had come and ran away, nearing seventeen-hundred miles-per-hour, leaving behind a purplish blur, the same way Quicksilver had done when he ran, leaving Clint to stand there on the front path, staring after her, one tear rolling down his cheek.

On one hand, he understood how she must have been feeling. On the other hand, he was frustrated and upset that she hadn't taken it better. Normally she was much more mild-mannered.

"Clint, come inside. She'll come 'round," Laura said quietly from the door. Hawkeye sighed heavily and did as he was ordered.

"Why can't she understand?" he asked his wife exasperatedly.

"Because she feels like her rock has turned to sand—like everything she knew was a lie. And I don't blame her. She just needs some time to process. And given what I just saw her do, it may not take as long as you think. Is that tracker still in her iPod? Do you know where she is?"

The archer pulled out his phone. "She's headed back towards the Tower—moving really freaking fast. I think I'll stay here tonight instead of going after her."

Laura grinned. "That's good. Give her some space for a while."

* * *

 **End Note: Tell me what you thought! I promise there's more to come. I'm still just getting my college feet under me so it may take a little bit.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: I... don't really have anything to say. Enjoy!**

* * *

Violet-Sky probably lit a hundred candles as the sun started to go down. And then twenty more. The hundred were for mourning for Pietro. The twenty for mourning the burning of everything she thought she knew about her life—or rather, her guardian. She changed into a black dress and sat in the middle of the large ring of candles. She'd deactivated the smoke alarm on her floor and closed her eyes. She took about ten minutes to meditate to calm down. Her heart was still racing from the run back and still clenched from Clint's revelation.

After the ten minutes were up, she spent the rest of the night staring at the flames, remembering Pietro. He'd always been slightly faster than her—just by one step. Always one step. Never any more. It had been so irritating. She remembered his dark brown hair turning silvery-white as his powers got stronger. She still wondered sometimes why hers hadn't. She remembered once feeling so immature when she saw him take his shirt off after a race and his powerful torso was showing. She remembered the heat that he generated—the same way Steve and now she did. She remembered his silver-blue blur mixing with her purple one when she'd glance over her shoulder. She remembered how unnaturally bright his electric blue eyes were and how infectious his smile was—not that he'd smiled often while they were in cells just barely learning how to not run at super speed into the walls. She remembered how much funnier his jokes were than hers. She remembered the first couple weeks talking to him and Wanda, learning how to hear past the thick accents to the words they were speaking.

She didn't realize she was crying with sadness until a hot tear soaked into her chest after it fell off her face.

 _"Violet-Sky?" Pietro asked. His voice sounded worn down and tired._

 _"Yeah?" she replied from the other side of the cell wall._

 _"How do you feel?"_

 _"Tired. Breathless. You?"_

 _"Better than you apparently," he joked._

Violet-Sky pulled herself out of her memories to light a few more candles as a thought struck her. She'd always meant to hold a vigil for her parents' deaths and never did. There had always just been so much going on in her life and then when she thought too hard about it she'd start crying. Well, tonight was a night for remembrance and crying.

She couldn't be strong all the time.

Surrounded on all sides by tiny fires, she closed her eyes and let the tears flow. The day had just been too much for her and she'd had a poor sleep the night before. She figured it was time for her to really let everything out. She couldn't control and bottle up her emotions every second of everyday forever. She just needed to let it out. She cried for Pietro's passing. She cried for her parents' deaths two years before. She cried over Clint's betrayal of trust and his lies. By the next morning she'd be fine again, but for the night, she was going to let everything out.

When she was finally out of tears to cry, she kept her eyes closed and meditated silently. Regulating her breathing, becoming conscious of her very slow resting heartbeat in her ribs, feeling how her tongue seemed to take up all the space in her mouth. And she let her mind wander back to her memories again. She and her father playing Frisbee in the house when her mother wasn't home, she and Clint laughing in the middle of the night over a half-empty carton of ice cream when they got back from a mission, she and Pietro's many races in that nippy courtyard, doing their utmost to beat each other, adrenaline pumping through their blood. She and the Avengers training together, her first kiss with Steve, Loki jumping in front of a fire from Barney Barton to save her life, the feeling her in heart when Clint and Steve rescued her from Asgard. She had so many good memories. And the same amount of bad ones—but the vigil wasn't to think of her tragedies and trials. She was there to mourn respectfully and remember all the good.

Sometime around four in the morning someone knocked on her door, but she didn't hear it. Wanda had made good on her promise that Violet-Sky wouldn't be disturbed.

A few times, she thought she saw a pair of eyes watching her from just outside her ring of fire but she'd blink and they'd be gone, leading her to think it was just her tired mind playing tricks on her. She'd shake her head and shift her position on the floor.

Once or twice her legs would fall asleep and she'd stand up and run as fast as she could in circles around her floor to get some feeling back into them. But she was careful. Running too fast could make a vortex of air that would snuff out her candles. And she didn't want to have to go through the hassle of relighting them.

Dawn's first rays started to twinkle on the eastern horizon, casting their peachy color onto the clouds and bits of the buildings. Violet-Sky took a deep breath, stood up, and changed out of the black dress into her pajamas—silver ones made of satin to replace the ones she'd left on Asgard a long time ago.

One by one, she blew out almost a hundred and fifty candles and stored them safely in a storage cupboard tucked into a corner. The protections Scarlet Witch had put up to make sure she was left alone faded away—even though she hadn't really known they were there. She climbed into bed and instantly fell asleep, feeling like someone was stroking her hair protectively and comfortingly. It was just a sensory illusion though. She was alone on her floor.

Her dreams were plagued by needles and scalpels and latex gloves and images of Clint's little family all looking warped by Strucker's experiments. They weren't as terrifying as they could have been though, given that she was more accepting of her past and her cousin's other life after the vigil. She also saw images of Pietro in a sports shirt, riddled with bullet wounds, eyes wide, lying on the ground, obviously dead. Clint and a young boy were behind a car that Pietro must have put there to shield them from the bullets that he had taken himself.

She woke up to brilliant sunlight and instantly went to the desktop computer she'd had on her floor forever but never used—her old laptop was at Clint's New York apartment and she preferred it. With a few quick commands she opened up the incident report of what happened in Sokovia. Her eyes blinked in shock as she saw the pictures taken on cell phones and the like—of her friend lying dead on the ground, covered in blood, eyes open. Violet-Sky couldn't understand it. She and Quicksilver had been _created_ to be as fast as or faster than the average bullet. He should have been able to weave through the bullets and not get harmed. Her heartstrings tugged again. The lifelessness in his electric blue eyes and the almost sarcastic expression on his face. _"You didn't see that coming?"_ He'd said that to her _every single time_ she lost their races after she'd pushed as hard as she could.

Looking at more files, she found the rivalry that seemed to be going on with Clint and Pietro. Her cousin's chance to pull a fast one on him and shoot the floor he was standing on with a gun to dump him down with his own, _"What? You didn't see that coming?"_

Gosh, she missed that cocky little twerp sometimes.

"Violet-Sky?" a voice asked tentatively. She turned to see Wanda standing silently in front of the closing elevator doors.

"Hi."

"I think we need to talk."

* * *

 **End Note: Tell me what you thought! I love hearing from you!**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Okay, here's the skinny, in case you're living under a rock and don't know, the Civil War trailer dropped tonight ( _AND I'M NOT FREAKING OUT OR FREAKIN' DYING AT ALL!_ ) which means I need to get this story _done_ before Civil War comes out in May and I've only barely started posting chapters. So, consider this a holiday present from me because I love you guys, I'm going to do a blitz-update of these chapters over the next few days and do my best to get this thing done so I can figure out an excuse for why Violet-Sky isn't in Civil War (as I have done for the past two UaVS's and their correlation to the MCU). Though I realize that I ended UaVS 1 after Cap 2 came out and then it was easier for me to think of an ending for UaVS 1. I don't want to do the same here. And then there was just the waffling that was UaVS 2 and now there's this one. So I hope to do more with this one than the last one, like actually have a plot, BUT I'M FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW!**

* * *

Violet-Sky couldn't help but feel defensive. That phrase was never a good thing. "About what?" she retorted, standing from her computer and turning the monitor off. Her friend took a few steps deeper into Violet-Sky's apartment space, watching the young archer carefully.

"About what happened after we were let out of our cells and you were left in yours," Wanda answered.

"I'm all ears," the younger speedster commented sarcastically.

Wanda sat down on one of Violet-Sky's sofas with a sigh. "My brother and I signed up for the experiments. We volunteered. You did not. At the time, we did not know that. I was not confused though, when I heard it in Strucker's mind. But you know our story. A Stark Industries bomb could have killed us when we were ten years old. We were angry with the Avengers so we attacked. We did not know that the archer was your guardian. We did not know his name. My brother enjoyed toying with him because I could sense that he was nothing more than human—unlike the others. Even the Widow. While we distracted them, you were drugged and shipped away."

"Okay…" Violet-Sky edged.

"The battle in Sokovia happened while you were in transport. When Pietro and I switched sides and we learned who Clint Barton was, we decided that our first priority once everything was over was to find you with them. But… for obvious reasons, that did not happen."

Violet-Sky gave a sad smile. Pietro was killed before he could find his friend again.

The two young women talked for several hours. Wanda told Violet-Sky stories from her childhood in Sokovia—particularly the ones in which Pietro embarrassed himself—and Violet-Sky told Wanda stories of her life with her parents before they died—particularly the really fun ones like playing flag football in the backyard instead of watching football because they all wanted the exercise. Wanda told Violet-Sky a story about when she was eight and Pietro stood up on a table in the cafeteria at their primary school and announced loudly that he did not care what anyone thought of him—and while he got down he slipped on something and crashed onto the table.

Violet-Sky sighed. "Oh man, I miss him," she said quietly.

"I do too," Wanda agreed, copying the speedster's tone.

"Do you wanna get outta the Tower?" Violet-Sky asked, sounding stretched. "I was awake all night and slept until about an hour ago and I need to run or something or I'm going to lose my mind. But I don't want to go alone. I'd ask Steve or Clint but I'm not on the best of terms with the latter and the former is training today." She looked up at her friend. The telekinetic girl looked over at the archer's violet eyes.

"Sure."

"Let's go get some lunch—even though it counts as breakfast for me. I'm dying for some calories." She stood up from her chair and started walking towards the elevator, not waiting for her friend. "I'm not supposed to run in the building. So we'll take a car."

Wanda laughed. "I am surprised," she admitted. "I saw you as more of an I-do-not-care-about-the-rules kind of girl."

"Well, Tony's got cameras everywhere that no one monitors but FRIDAY constantly notifies him if something is out-of-place. And I don't want to get in trouble. I just got home—I'd rather not get put in another cell," Violet-Sky explained. Scarlet Witch chuckled again as the two young women hopped into the elevator. "Speaking of, hey FRIDAY! Play some music!"

Almost instantly, one of Violet-Sky's favorite songs started to play. She grinned and turned to Wanda. "When I was a freshman in high school, I did a little dancing with the swing club. This song was the one we danced to in front of the whole school. Which of course, naturally, means I stepped on my partner's foot and we both got tangled up in each other and fell to the floor. It was super embarrassing." Wanda read the memories right from her mind, including the embarrassment, and smiled. For a brief moment the older girl remembered her, her brother, and her new friend telling stories through the cell walls. It had been almost fun. It wasn't bad for Pietro and herself, but she'd been able to feel the pain in the teenager two cells down. The pain of loss. It hurt even though she hadn't known the archer was kidnapped.

They changed their minds about the car and decided to walk. Violet-Sky didn't mind walking but after a while it felt _really slow_. She found herself with her hands in her shorts' pockets, drumming her fingers impatiently while they waited for the intersection light to turn green so they could cross the road.

Wanda started laughing. "You act _so much_ like Pietro after he got his powers," she remarked. "He was impatient too. Always in a rush."

Violet-Sky did her best not to giggle, but it was funny. "Thanks," she commented.

Her phone started ringing. It was Tony. She pressed the green button and held it up to her ear. "Where are you?"

"Walking to a café with Wanda. Why?"

"Clint just got back. We want to show you the new Avengers facility."

"Give me a few hours. And tell Clint I'm still angry with him."

"He already knows. I'm guessing he introduced you to his family?"

"You're guessing correctly." She hung up. "Let's get to that café before they run out of yummies!" She took Wanda's wrist and dragged her across the intersection the second the little walking man icon flashed on. "I'm hungry and apparently they want me to go see the facility—"

"That you have already seen," Wanda finished. "I know. I heard your joy as you ran."

"Yeah. But they don't know that."

They laughed their way through lunch, eating sandwiches with strawberry lemonade and fruit punch. And for dessert, Violet-Sky bought about a dozen chocolate chip cookies. She gave Wanda two (even though she'd offered more) and ate the rest herself. She sighed contentedly as they started the walk back to the Tower.

Neither of them noticed the tall figure in dark clothing watching them intensely from across the street.

* * *

 **End Note: This one does take place directly after Age of Ultron and before Ant-Man, so I realize there is a lot of time in between the events of this story and the events of whatever's gonna happen in Civil War, BUT I DON'T FREAKING CARE!**

 **Thanks for reading! Love you guys!**

 **~Cass**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Oh my gosh I love this chapter! I've been looking forward to sharing with everyone for such a long time! Happy holidays!**

* * *

"And here, we have the big team-training room!" Tony announced proudly. Violet-Sky strolled boredly behind him. She'd seen everything already.

"How 'bout I give myself a tour and then we can go find a snack?" she suggested sarcastically.

"Do you ever stop eating?"

"Can't. Part of my powers includes a hyper-fast metabolism. I burn through calories like fire on a dry hill. I can keep my speed up for a long time, but afterwards, I'm drained. I can't stop or I'll get hypoglycemia or something."

"Low blood sugar," Tony commented with a nod.

"Yeah. Trust me, I wish I didn't have to eat so much. Sometimes it makes me feel sick." She snorted at an unpleasant memory. "Especially when it's awful HYDRA food. Ugh!" Tony laughed at her. "I like how you think I'm joking," she commented sarcastically.

"I think you've gotten sassier in the year you've been gone," Stark said.

"Yeah. It comes from living in the cell next-door to Pietro Maximoff," she joked.

"Mm-hmm. I believe it," Clint said from behind them, copying his ward's usual sarcastic tone.

Violet-Sky pointedly ignored him. She zipped through the building, cutting off a few places, and rejoined them. "'Kay. I've seen everything. Can I go back to the Tower now?"

"Can you find your way?"

"Undoubtedly. I've gotten really good at it since I got my powers." She grinned at the men and took off.

"I should have made her promise not to run in here either," Tony remarked to his teammate.

"Let her," Clint replied nonchalantly. "If she's gonna join us as an Avenger at some point, she'll have to train here with the rest of them. And to her, training means running, punching, and shooting." The billionaire nodded thoughtfully.

"She'd make a great Avenger. She still needs a name though. Amethyst is childish."

* * *

Violet-Sky broke her promise and didn't stop running until she was on her floor, ready to take a shower. She figured at that point she'd broken her promise to Tony not to run in the Tower more than she'd kept it. Oops. It wasn't her fault that she became a fast freak and constantly felt the urge to run, run, run, and never stop. It was Strucker's fault.

Steam curled around her as the shower started going. One of the few things she _liked_ to do slowly now was get clean. Be precise and thorough.

When she got out, she braided her hair and dressed in workout clothes fast so she was completely presentable. "FRIDAY? Where are the others?"

"All those who are here are on training level thirty-two."

"Thank you," Violet-Sky said. She took the elevator to floor thirty-five, another training level, and started to box with a punching bag. The loud _thunks_ were calming to her. The repetition reminding her of her early days with SHIELD when Tristan was training her to be a field agent. So what, her punches weren't as strong as they could be because she never had force? She had speed—and sometimes, that was all the mattered and made the big difference.

"You know," a heavily accented voice that was achingly familiar started from behind her. "You'll pack a harder punch if you do this." Hands rested on her hips and guided one side forward as she threw another punch. The bag flew back as far on its arc as it could before swinging back for her to steady.

Violet-Sky whirled around. "You're… you're…"

Pietro Maximoff stood there, less than five inches away, grinning cockily.

"You're supposed to be dead," she whispered.

He shrugged. "I walked it off." His arms wrapped around her shoulders as hers flung around his waist. "Oh I missed you, Violet," he whispered in her ear. Her face was buried in his silvery white hair deep enough that she could see the dark brown—maybe even black—roots. He was warm and strong against her and she relaxed into his embrace.

"I missed you too," she murmured.

He pushed her out to arm's length, holding onto her shoulders and staring intensely into her purple eyes with his electric blue ones. "But no one can know I am still alive—not even Wanda. I have managed to keep her out for now. But only you can know."

"Why?"

"Because I do not know how or why I am still here. As far as I know, I was dead. I remember the pain of the bullets tearing through my skin. I remember pushing the car to protect the archer. I remember my world going black as I fell over. I do not know how long I had no consciousness. But suddenly I woke up in a box. It resembled the cradle that the Vision was created in. I got out, disoriented and confused, to find myself in a sterile white room that was devoid of anything but the box. So I ran out and found myself in New York. I have wandered the streets for several days, found out the date, explored a bit, kept an eye out for you. And then, earlier today, I saw you and my sister leaving a café."

"So why not tell Wanda? She might be able to help with the gaps in your memories."

"I think it is better this way, for her to move on with her life," he answered.

"Why me, then? Did you not think it was better for me to move on?"

"You found out I was dead only a few days ago. You did not quite have time to leave me behind. Wanda has had nearly a month. It is okay for me to show myself to you." He pulled her back into a hug, rubbing her back.

"Careful you don't get too close," she chided. "I'm spoken for."

"Oh, yes! Your precious boyfriend Steve! You talked of him so fondly I start to think he does not exist," Pietro exclaimed sarcastically. Violet-Sky giggled and wormed her arm out of his hold to point at a picture of Captain America striking a very sarcastic pose on the wall. Tony had mentioned that in a failed attempt to ease the tension, the whole team had done "glamour shots" in their outfits and hung them in the gyms. She loved laughing at them.

"That's my Steve," she told him with another giggle. "He very much exists."

Pietro's eerily bright blue eyes flicked over to the massive picture.

Almost instantly he shoved Violet-Sky away from him. "I am sorry. I did not realize you were dating _Captain America,_ " he apologized. She laughed.

"Yes I am. But that doesn't mean you can't hug me. You're still one of my best friends." She closed the gap and this time gave him the hug. "Just be careful with how close you get." Bending back so he could see her face, she gave him a cheeky wink. He smirked and chuckled, letting himself wrap his arms around her much smaller frame. He let his nose rest in her hair, breathing in the smell of her shampoo and perfume.

"I am very lucky Tony does not have cameras on this level," he muttered.

"He does. I just disabled them before I came down because he doesn't want me to run in the building and I wanted to see how fast I could go before he makes me a treadmill that can handle my speed." For several long moments after a chuckle, the older Maximoff twin was quiet, rubbing the end of Violet-Sky's braid between his fingers.

"Will you meet me at that restaurant on fifth for dinner at six?"

"Absolutely. It's time to catch up." She squeezed him. "Now get outta here before someone comes looking for me and catches you." With a silver-blue blur trailing behind him, Quicksilver ran off.

And not a moment too soon. Almost the moment after her stray hairs settled, her soldier stepped out of the stair well. "Vi," he greeted. "Were you talking to someone?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Just myself."

"I thought I heard you giggling."

"I was. That was when I was on the phone with an old friend." She waved her cell vaguely.

"What are you doing?"

Violet-Sky shrugged. "Boxing."

Steve was thoughtful for a moment. "Do you want to go out to dinner tonight?"

"I can't. I was on the phone with an old friend and _we're_ going out to dinner tonight."

"Which friend?"

"A kid I knew back when I was in high school."

"Named?"

"Peter." She paused, remembering an actual Peter she knew once in high school who was really smart but a huge dork. "Peter Grayson."

"Is it a date?"

"No. Just catching up. Haven't seen any high school friends in years. Angelina might join us if she's available. I just feel like if I'd died while I was in Sokovia I wouldn't have left them with the best memories of me. I wasn't a bad student or anything. I was just really sarcastic and a teaser. I don't want them to remember me like that. In case I do die sometime soon." She was a SHIELD agent—good at lying and improvising.

"Okay. How about tomorrow?"

"Sounds great!"

* * *

 **End Note: Eeek!**

 **To "Whitelion69": Thank you so much for always being a faithful reviewer! I'm glad you're enjoying this story! (At least... I think you are! Your reviews are always positive! :-D)**

 **And thank you to everyone else who has reviewed! I love you all dearly!**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: The blitz-update didn't go exactly to plan. Sorry. I still love you guys, I promise!**

* * *

"You look nice," Natasha remarked as Violet-Sky stepped out of the elevator on the ground floor at 5:55. She was wearing a black cotton skort and a nice purple blouse. The only thing that seemed out of place with her look was the running shoes. "Goin' somewhere?"

"Yes. Out to dinner with some old high school friends."

"Oh. Have fun."

"Thanks!" She took a few normal steps until she was out of the building and then took off through the streets.

"I feel like she's lying…" Natasha muttered to herself. She shrugged it off. She knew better than anyone that everyone was allowed to have their secrets.

Violet-Sky slammed to a stop in the alleyway next to the restaurant. She straightened her shirt and fixed her hair briefly before trotting out into the bright city lights and sliding through the entrance while someone held it open. "Thank you," she told whoever it was. Her eyes peered quickly around the joint, scanning for the familiar silvery-white hair of her friend.

She felt a breeze on the back of her neck. "Sorry. Am I late?" a voice with a familiar accent asked from behind her. She turned around. Pietro was slightly out of breath with his hair blown back and a little messy. She chuckled.

"Almost."

He pulled out a bouquet of purple roses surrounded by violets from behind his back. "These are for you," he said, quietly, almost embarrassed.

She took the flowers and buried her nose in them. "Mm! They smell wonderful!" she exclaimed.

Pietro grinned, and stepped around her to the seating hostess. "Maximoff, party of two," he told her. She nodded, grabbed a few menus, and beckoned them to follow her. Pietro took Violet-Sky's hand and led her through the place behind the lady. Old SHIELD habits made the younger speedster catalogue exits and look for escape plans. She had a total of thirty-three by the time they reached their table and sat down. Some of them could be nixed though, given her speed made the evasive maneuvers a little less necessary.

"So. Tell me," Violet-Sky started. "What was the battle in Sokovia like? I watched footage and stuff, but I didn't get to see a lot of it and I don't know what it felt like."

"It was overwhelming. Almost more than I could handle. It was all a blur—even for me. I do not know if I ever had that much adrenaline in me before then." He ran his hand through his hair—then paused. Something like realization dawned in his bright eyes. "May… may I see your hair?" he asked. Violet-Sky raised her eyebrows but pulled her long curtain all onto one shoulder. She'd pulled it out of her usual braid and straightened it.

Pietro circled the table and knelt next to her. He took her hair in one fist and pulled with the other hand, twisting his wrist so he was drawing it away from her head at a right angle to how it fell. For several seconds, she was confused as to what he was doing. Then they both saw.

Violet-Sky's jaw dropped.

"I thought so," Quicksilver murmured.

The brown pigment broke off in his grip, leaving behind silvery-white in the bottom half of her hair. The top was still her normal color, like his dark roots, but not the ends. "How come that never happened when I took a shower?" she asked, confused. "I've wrung my hair out just like that several times since I got back and I've had my powers for… ages." She couldn't remember what month it was when she first woke up with a jolt and in a blur of purple was instantly on the other side of her cell crashing into the wall.

"Not sure. I just remembered that was how I found out my hair changed."

Violet-Sky sighed. She'd have to come up with a believable story to tell Clint and the others when she got back to the Tower. "Okay then. Let's look over the menu shall we?"

Two speedsters having dinner meant they were done looking over the menu in about half a second. "I think that thing I cannot pronounce sounds good," Pietro commented, pointing to something on the entrées. Violet-Sky looked it over and shrugged.

"Not a huge fan of that kind of stuff. I'm looking more at this," she countered, pointing as well.

"That looks interesting."

The waitress came and they ordered whatever they wanted. They talked their way through the meal, laughing, trying to remember all the jokes they'd told while they were in their cells. Pietro still found it a little difficult to believe that with her level of levity while she was captive that she wasn't a volunteer and had been kidnapped from a busy place to be experimented on. She told him stories of Tristan's training and a couple missions for SHIELD and running from HYDRA with Steve, thinking they were after him when they were actually wanting her.

"Of course they would want you," Pietro said flirtatiously. "Who would not want a strong, smart, beautiful princess like you?"

"Oh shut up," she sighed exasperatedly. "They wanted me because I was trained to be a survivor. I'm not the type to give up. And neither are you. There's a reason only the three of us survived the experiments. You survived for your country and your family. I survived to get back to my country and family." Her purple eyes bored deep into his electric blue, just watching carefully.

"That may be true, love, but that does not mean they did not want you for more than just your determination." Violet-Sky's eyebrows scrunched. "They would have probably brainwashed you and had you be the face of their new regime. The figurehead. The public image. A beautiful girl like you… that would be advantageous."

Violet-Sky chuckled. "Let's not talk about this while we're out."

"Alright. What do you want to talk about?"

The younger of the two speedsters played with her now-silvery-white hair thoughtfully. "Your little picture. I saw you looking at it sometimes when we were in the cells. I never saw what was on it, but you didn't seem so harsh when you were looking at it."

Pietro sighed and pulled an old piece of paper out of the knee pocket in his trousers. He passed it over to her.

It was a picture of his family. Him and Wanda when they were children, and two adults who looked very much like them—curly dark hair and all. The mother had brown eyes and the father blue. They were all smiling, happy. Violet-Sky smiled sadly and passed it back to him. He put it back in his pocket. Violet-Sky reached into her bag and pulled out her wallet. She slid a picture out and handed it to him. It was of her and her parents. Taped to the edge of it was another one of her and Clint. The older speedster gazed at it for several long moments before reaching across the table to give it back.

"I guess we have both lost people very dear to us," he commented. Violet-Sky nodded.

"Yes, I suppose so," she agreed.

They were silent for a long while as they finished clearing their plates.

And then…

 _Bang! Bang! BOOM!_

Two gunshots and an explosion went off in the kitchen. Pietro jumped over the table and pulled Violet-Sky to the ground under the table, himself on top of her.

* * *

 **End Note: BOOM!**

 **To "Guest": There will be _some_ Roger/Barton/Maximoff tension, but I can't do a whole lot because _no one knows Maximoff is alive_. And I know who will win. I can neither confirm nor deny your sentiments, however, I can hint that a blue-eyed man will be the one to take Barton's heart. (Which, because it's me, is absolutely no help at all given they _both_ have blue eyes! :-D)**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Who's ready for some** ** _drrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!_** **(Or, at the very least, the amount someone like me can write...)**

* * *

"Get out the front door as fast as you can. I'm right behind you," Pietro ordered.

"If you're going to go into that inferno and try and save people I'm coming with you," Violet-Sky retorted.

"No! I am not risking you. You have a life to live and people who care about you. I am already dead."

"Obviously not! The fact that you're here means that you're not dead. And I'm not going to sacrifice you either!" She prepped her running stance and bolted towards the kitchen, Quicksilver following her closely. Once she reached the threshold he grabbed her around the waist and forced her back, away from the blaze, before disappearing in himself. "Quicksilver!" She moved to go back in, but Pietro breezed past and pushed her away again, sending her crashing into a table.

Moments later he reappeared, scooping her up, and taking her out. "Everyone is safe. It is alright," he told her quietly, though he sounded breathless.

"Why wouldn't you let me help?" she demanded.

"Because I am not going to lose you."

"Don't worry about me. You don't have a burn on you! What makes you think I would?"

"It is not that you are not incapable of doing something. It is that you have people who care about you and want you to come home," he answered, stroking her silvery-white ends as he set her down. "I did not see any sign of a shooter or a bomb though." He could feel her heart racing from a few inches away and gathered her into his arms for a hug to calm her down. "It is okay, love. I have got you."

Violet-Sky couldn't help herself, she buried her face into his powerful chest.

As the adrenaline seeped out of her system, she felt her breathlessness go away. They stood just outside of the restaurant on the sidewalk as the other patrons streamed out. Already sirens were screaming up the block. "We should leave," Pietro whispered. "We do not want an ambulance finding out about us." He took Violet-Sky's hand and together they ran off, their respective streaks mixing together. As always, the younger of the two was only one step behind. And as always, it drove her crazy. She didn't always like competition but she wanted to beat him so badly—mostly because she could never do it and she felt like she should be able to.

They stopped somewhere outside the city. Violet-Sky blinked. "We're on my old street," she remarked. Gripping Pietro's hand tighter, she pulled him down the dead end to her old house. It was dark, but otherwise looked exactly like she'd left it—including the marks where the Bifrost had picked her up almost a year ago. "Would you like to stay here? Technically I own it and even though I've been gone I've been doing my best to keep it in good condition. I'll be at the Tower or the new facility but the only others who know about this place are Clint and Steve. Even then Clint only knows the address because he's only been here once. You'd be safe here. And it's not too far from the city."

Pietro grinned. "I would like that."

Violet-Sky pulled her key ring out of her bag and put her old house key into the lock. They slipped inside and turned on the lights.

Everything was just as she left it—spic and span but slightly used from when she'd hidden there with Steve. She gave Pietro the quick version of the grand tour and directed him to the guest bedroom that Cap had stayed in—she left that bit out. "The electricity's on, the water's on, everything should be fully functional. You'll be fine."

"Thank you," he murmured, sounding genuine. He gathered her into a strong hug and kissed her forehead.

"Careful," she chided sarcastically. He chuckled and kissed her forehead again.

"Your soldier is not here. What is he going to do?" he retorted playfully, hands sliding from her shoulders to her waist.

"Probably kill me, then you, then me again if your sister reads it from my head and tells him."

"I am keeping Wanda out of my head right now. How about I teach you?" His accent rolled off his tongue and made the offer sound really tempting. She remembered the brief kiss they'd shared in Sokovia and shut her eyes in an attempt to shut him out. She was _not_ falling for Pietro Maximoff. It was _not_ happening. Not to her. She was a good girl and had no plans— _ever_ —to cheat on Steve.

"That'd be too suspicious if she suddenly couldn't get in my head," she countered. "That would raise even more questions." She shook her head and attempted to shove Quicksilver off—to no avail given he was way stronger than her. He chuckled at her efforts and used his hands to force hers down.

"Do not be like that, love," he chastised. "No one will know. And if Wanda asks, it was a dream. Just do not think about it around her."

"Saying that is going to instantly make me think that around her," Violet-Sky muttered.

"Just one. It is not like we have never kissed before."

Violet-Sky sighed with sarcastic drama, but before she could do anything else—

Pietro was kissing her.

It was the same kind of kiss she'd shared with Steve in the garage—deep and almost hungry. Testing how far the other was willing to go. Violet-Sky wasn't willing to go very far at all given how guilty she'd feel later, so she stayed a bit more reserved—but not by much.

Because of their shared mind speeds, the seconds stretched into minutes and soon it felt like they had been kissing for hours—though to a normal person it would have been only a few minutes, max.

Then, coming back to her senses, Violet-Sky pushed him off in earnest, sending him stumbling back and falling over the back of the couch. "I'm sorry," she muttered. "I just can't do this. Not now." She buried her face in her hands. She could feel how hot her skin was on her fingertips. Like she was embarrassed and had a fever at the same time. It was almost unnatural. She shook her head again and again, trying to rid herself of the feelings. Control. She had to control her emotions. If they got the better of her she could compromise herself.

Pietro's arms wrapped around her and he started murmuring things comfortingly in his native language, chin resting on the crown of her head.

When the Sokovian speech was done, he switched to English. "It is alright, love. I am not going to push you farther than you are willing to go. You are one of my best friends and I do not want to lose you. I know we did not meet under the greatest of circumstances, but my relationship with you is important to me. And I want you to be happy with your soldier. But I will always thank you for your kindness. I owe you."

Violet-Sky shook her head. "I can't," she repeated. She tore out of his grip and bolted off, leaving behind a brief streak of purple. He stared after her almost forlornly, more than half-tempted to run after her. He was faster—it wouldn't be too difficult to catch up.

 _No,_ his subconscious ordered. _Let her be for now._

So he stayed where he was.

* * *

 **End Note: *Ultron voice* _That_ was dramatic! (Okay, maybe not really, but _I'm trying goshdarnit_!)**

 **To "Kelsoc (Guest)": I can't give away too much! Surely you understand! Spoiler alerts galore! Heavens no! To "Whitelion69": You're so very welcome! I'm glad you seem to be liking the story!**

 **Thanks for reading! Love y'all!**

 **~Cass**


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: So... being in college, I have about 25 pages worth of papers to write in the next three days because I'm a horrific procrastinator. So... I may not be updating this as frequently as I promised until semester's over... on the seventeenth. But I'm going to try my hardest to make sure this story is finished by the time Civil War comes out.**

* * *

Violet-Sky ran right into her shower, ignoring the fact that FRIDAY was on and she was breaking her promise—again. Heck, maybe if she broke it enough but didn't break anything, Tony would rescind it. She stripped off her nice date clothes and took a long, lukewarm shower. She didn't want any hot water. Running back into the city at full speed had caused her pulse to rise somewhat.

Regardless of the fact that the water wasn't _that_ hot, steam spiraled around her and water pounded at her back, relaxing her tense muscles. _I'm going to have to go get a massage at some point,_ she thought sarcastically. She'd have to schedule an appointment for one that was relatively soon but wouldn't interfere with the other things she had going on.

Namely the date she had the next night.

Once she was done, she got dressed in some more casual clothes and braided her hair. It was around nine at night, but it was early summer so it was still pretty light.

She left her floor and went up to the main gathering room just off from the lab.

Steve and Clint were there, playing chess, while Tony and Natasha sat on a sofa, comparing notes on one of the raids of a HYDRA base. Natasha was scolding Tony and saying that he was being too skittish and self-centered—leaving details out and exaggerating his own role in things. Tony retorted something along the lines of he had to be true to the ego he'd established for himself at SHIELD. Wanda, Thor, and Bruce were the only ones absent. Scarlet Witch was probably in her bedroom. No one knew where Bruce was and Thor had gone home to Asgard for the time being.

Violet-Sky cleared her throat. Everyone turned to look and see her new hair. No one asked any questions, but she gave them an explanation that was plausible. She'd gotten home from her dinner with Peter Grayson and the brown pigment just seemed to rub off in the shower or something. After everyone finished staring, she went over to the bar. She didn't drink alcohol but they kept a couple bottles of strawberry lemonade behind the counter just for her. She threw it at Steve. He caught it and popped the top off effortlessly. She could never quite manage it.

She went over to him and sat next to him, retrieving the bottle and taking a swig. She tilted her head to the side and pointed at the board. "Shouldn't you move your queen? That pawn is in a position to take her," she suggested. Steve noticed and followed her idea. She zipped around him in a blur and sat next to Clint. "I think you ought to use that free rook to take out his bishop. You'd be free to make it back to safety before any of his pieces could harm you." Clint raised his eyebrows but chose to follow her idea. He sighed and took Steve's bishop. She winked at her boyfriend and ran over to sit next to Tony in a streak of violet. "Question," she started to the genius. "Can you rescind the promise to not run in the Tower if I promise not to break anything? I'm not as clumsy as the Maximoff kid."

Tony, who hadn't even noticed her drop next to him, turned from his tablet. "Oh hi Vi," he greeted. "Could you repeat the question?" She did, voice taut with irritation. "Oh. Um… I'm almost done with a prototype for your treadmill. Is that not enough?"

She shook her head. "Well, kind of. But I want to be able to run up and down the stairs as fast as I can, and run through the hallways if someone needs a hand or if there's an emergency or if I need to make a _quick_ getaway. I just don't like being slow anymore. I'm no longer as patient as I once was. My brain may not work as _well_ as yours, but it works _faster_. And everything can feel agonizingly slow when I can't run. Walking, taking the elevator, it's so _boring!_ "

Her passionate rant got the others listening, trying not to laugh. They knew how different she was to the girl who left—how different she was even from the rest of them. The other Avengers were fighters—they all had very punchy powers. She had super speed. Violet-Sky was something beyond them, in a sense.

Natasha nudged Stark in the arm. "C'mon. I don't see why she couldn't run. She'll be fine. Let her use her powers."

Clint and Steve paused their game to curiously watch. Clint looked apprehensive—like part of him wanted Tony to let her free, but part of him was concerned. Steve just looked interested in what the outcome was going to be. He watched with a mildly blank expression.

Finally, the billionaire sighed heavily. "Okay. But if you break something, you won't be allowed to run inside until I say you are. Deal?"

Violet-Sky grinned and giggled with excitement. "Deal!" She drank the rest of her lemonade and in a flash, with a blur trailing behind her, vanished. After a moment she reappeared. "You don't happen to have a massage therapist on your staff do you?"

Tony laughed. "Floor eighteen. Ask for Kelly."

Another grin. "Great! Thanks!"

And she was gone. Again.

"What else has happened to her?" Tony asked. "She seems to have more energy than she used to."

"She's growing up," Clint put in. "She's not as much of a tired teenager anymore."

"That's not it," Steve countered. "She's more confident. She started this as a SHIELD agent. One-hundred-percent human. All she knew how to do was fight and shoot. She told me once that she felt pretty useless since there was nothing that made her 'special.' Now she has powers. She has something 'real' to contribute to the team—to her family. She isn't useless anymore. And it's made her confident. Almost proud probably. And it's given her a boost in morale." He used air quotes a couple times. The other Avengers thought about it for a moment. "Plus, she's been having a lot of calories and sugar to keep her metabolism up," he added as a slightly sarcastic afterthought. Natasha chuckled.

Violet-Sky was already on floor eighteen, lying on a massage table, oil or something all over her bare back. Her shirt and tank top were pulled up to her neck. The woman named Kelly was rubbing out the knotted muscles where her shoulders met her neck and where her neck met her head. "What have you been doing? Where are all these from?"

"I carry all my stress up there. I tense and I suck at relaxing," Violet-Sky replied. "Thank you, though. This feels heavenly."

"No problem."

An hour later, at ten at night, Violet-Sky bolted out of the Tower, still in her pajamas. She slid to a stop in her parents' old house.

Pietro was up in the guest room, but he was down in front of her in an instant.

"Just wanted to make sure you were settling in," she told him.

"I am. Thank you." The Sokovian paused. "I wanted to apologize for pushing you earlier this evening. It was not fair of me. I have a bad tendency to… go too fast. To get carried away." Violet-Sky couldn't help it—she giggled a bit.

"I know a little of what that's like," she commented. "I've forgiven and forgotten it." The first bit was true, the second was _not_. She was going to remember that kiss for _ever_.

But she didn't have to tell him that.

He chuckled. "Thank you. Are you staying here tonight or going back to the Tower?"

"Would you like me to stay?"

"If you would not mind. I am not used to being alone."

* * *

 **End Note: Eeek! I love too many Avengers characters. I swear I get more and more obsessed with Marvel as each new movie comes out. No more "casual fan" for me.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: (You can ignore these ramblings if you want.) Man! I am bad at keeping promises! Holy cow. That being said, I've almost finished writing this beast! I don't know how many other UaVS's I'll write after this one. I guess we'll see if I wind things up well. I'll probably do a UaVS4 after Civil War (because it's** ** _Civil War!_** **), but I don't know how far after that I'll do.**

* * *

"Would you like to watch a movie?" Violet-Sky asked. "I'm in the mood for a movie."

"I will do anything you would like to do. It is your home."

He caught a slightly impish glimmer in her purple eyes. "Let's watch a movie. I have the perfect one." She rushed over to the DVD bookshelf and pulled out a particular favorite of hers: _Now You See Me_. Putting it in the DVD player, she started everything up. Pietro searched the entire house in the intermittent time and helped her make popcorn.

They sat next to each other on the couch, each with their own bowl. A while into the movie, Pietro looked down at her. "Does he look like Banner to you?" he asked, nodding in the direction of one of the characters.

Violet-Sky shrugged. "A bit. But not really," she answered.

A few minutes after that, she felt Quicksilver's arm wrap around her shoulders. She felt a blush creep up her neck and across her face. _Stop losing your head every time he even mildly shows any sort of interest in you_! Violet-Sky thought harshly. _You are taken and you love your boyfriend!_

That was true. But she and Pietro shared something—besides almost identical powers—that she and Steve never could. The trauma of Strucker's experiments and what it did to them. The wind in their faces. The feeling of moving so fast. The breathlessness that accompanied it. They had more shared life experiences than she and her boyfriend. Sometimes it seemed so much easier to be around Pietro than Steve. With Steve she felt like she had to keep up some sort of appearance so he would still like her. But she didn't feel like she had to act around Pietro. He had seen her at her lowest moments and was still willing to stick around.

But she rolled with it, figuring she could be close to a friend. She rested her head on his shoulder and didn't pull away when he tilted his against hers, letting their silvery-white hair mingle.

Their increased metabolisms wrapped each other in a cocoon of warmth. It was a very comfortable position. She wanted to nuzzle his strong chest the way she would have done with Steve, but she didn't want to send the wrong message—not after what had happened earlier with that hungry, heavy kiss.

They finished watching the movie in almost complete silence, with only the occasional sarcastic comment and resulting chuckle.

For the first time in a year, Violet-Sky didn't fall asleep during the movie. When it was over she stood up and helped haul Pietro to his feet.

Her phone started ringing. Clint. "Hello?" she greeted.

"Where are you?"

"Decided to spend the night at my old house. It's been neglected for a year while I was gone and I figured I'd clean it up," she replied. It was easier to tell half-truths than outright lies.

"Want me to come help?"

A quick rush of panic swept through her at the thought of Clint showing up and seeing Pietro was still alive, but she fought it down to answer calmly, "Nah. I got this. I'm already finished dusting and I've only got a few more things to do. I'll be home in the Tower by morning. I promise." On the other end she heard her guardian sigh heavily. "How about the day after tomorrow you and Laura go out on a date? I'll babysit for you. It might do me good to get to know the rest of my family."

"That's not a bad idea," Clint remarked thoughtfully. Violet-Sky winked at Pietro. He grinned.

"Okay. I'm going to start the vacuum now. See you tomorrow."

"See ya, kiddo." He hung up.

"That was close," Violet-Sky commented.

Pietro shrugged. "That is alright. I would have been gone long before he could reach this place."

The archer smiled. "Fair point." She bolted up into her room and changed into the pajamas that she'd left behind—a sort of turquoise blue cotton tank top and long comfy gray pants with blue cheetah prints—and ran back to Quicksilver. "Let's get you settled in."

She moved to go back upstairs but he grabbed her wrist. "What are those?" he asked, pointing to a pair of navy velvet boxes tucked into a corner on the kitchen counter that were covered in a layer of dust.

A flood of memories hit Violet-Sky like a tidal wave. She froze in place, staring at them until she regained her composure. "Those are my parents' wedding rings," she explained. "I couldn't bear to keep them with me for the longest time after they died. I just couldn't. It hurt too much. Now I just leave them here to protect them. If I lost my mother's ring while out on an assignment… I wouldn't be able to handle it. And I don't want the other Avengers to really see them. They see me as a pretty happy kid. Not one with a dark side and a streak of pain a hundred miles wide and a thousand deep. Keeping my parents' rings with me would show them everything."

"You think they would not understand that you miss the people who raised you and made you who you are?" Pietro asked, confused and skeptical.

"They'd understand. Most of them have lost someone too. But I don't exactly want to lay bare my soul to them."

"Not even your guardian?"

"He's mostly seen my soul for what it is. It's not him I'm concerned about." She shook her head. "Let's get you in bed, yeah? I'm exhausted. It's been a long day." Letting him keep his grip on her wrist, she ran up the stairs and stopped at the entrance to the guest room. "Good night, Pietro. I'll see you in the morning." She kissed his cheek and retreated into her old room—but not before running silently downstairs to grab the velvet boxes—forgetting to close the door. She sat on her old bed and rubbed her nose to make sure it wasn't going to run if she started crying and opened them up.

Her mother's gold ring with an elegant amethyst circle surrounding a flawless diamond glittered in the half-light, the wedding bands on either side studded with more amethysts. Her father's solid, sturdy gold band seemed to smile at her like he once did. She pulled them out of their little slots. Engraved into the inside of her mother's was _My Eternity._ Inside her father's was _My Forever_. She remembered them dancing barefoot on the wooden kitchen floor to old music. She remembered those sweet pet names when they would leave for work at different times even though they worked at the same place.

Taking a deep breath, Violet-Sky slipped her mother's onto her own left hand ring finger.

"A perfect fit," Pietro's voice commented quietly from the doorway. She jumped, head whipping to look at him. He was leaned against the doorframe, watching respectfully. He took a few steps into the room and knelt next to the bed. He put one hand out and nodded in the direction of her father's ring. "May I?" She extended her palm and let him pick it up. After a moment of looking at it with almost reverence he put it on his left hand ring finger. It fit perfectly. "This looks very much like my father's," he murmured. He took her left hand with his and examined how her mother's looked on her. "It suits you." Gently, he kissed her knuckles, removed the ring, and put it back in its case. "Goodnight, dragul meu," he murmured. At the Romanian—she vaguely knew the difference but knew it wasn't Sokovian—she raised her eyebrows.

"I don't speak Romanian… but goodnight, Pietro." She grinned as he vanished with a blur, took her mother's wedding band off and put it away. "Enough memories for tonight," she whispered as she put the cases in her old jewelry box.

* * *

 **End Note: I _wish_ I spoke Romanian! I wish I spoke a lot of things. (Like Russian, for example.)**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: Sorry for taking a while with this one. I kinda... kinda forgot about it in favor of my other (arguably 'better') Avengers story - Duct Tape and Safety Pins. But it's here now!**

* * *

It was about four in the morning when Pietro woke up to some loud noise coming from the house next door. He sat up and slid out of bed to check on Violet-Sky, leaning against the doorframe again. She was still asleep.

He'd never seen her look so vulnerable as she did in sleep. Her cool mask of controlled emotions—that occasionally cracked—faded to a relaxed expression of peace. Her bare shoulders, pale from spending a year in a cell, curled forward as she lay on her side. The long brown and silvery-white curtain of her hair was spread behind her head to keep it away from her face. He could see where her knees were bent under the covers. She was on her right side, leaving the shimmering skin of her left arm burn scar exposed to the night.

She always looked beautiful, but in sleep she was angelic. The harsh sarcasm lines in her mouth were stalled for the night, leaving behind full, slightly parted pale pink lips relaxed into a curled grin.

Tenderly Pietro brushed a few strands of stray hairs from her face.

"Comoara mea," he whispered near her ear. "If only you knew."

He kissed the smooth tranquil skin of her left temple and darted back into his room.

* * *

He awoke the next morning to bright sunlight, the smell of something delicious, and loud noises coming from the kitchen downstairs. Confused, he rushed down to see Violet-Sky, fully dressed and ready for the day, whistling and making breakfast—for four people. "That is a lot of food. Is someone joining us?" he asked.

"No. We just need extra calories. I find that eating twice as much as a normal person per meal, instead of four times as much like my metabolism thinks I should, is much more conducive to my health," Violet-Sky explained before going back to whistling. "Sit down at the counter. I'll be done in a few minutes." Pietro, who knew how to cook fairly decently, watched her carefully, eyes taking in everything about her. The ripple in her muscles as she picked up a heavy jug of milk, the subtle shifts in the movements of her hair, her long, thick, black eyelashes lightly fluttering as she crossed into the stream of air from the air conditioner.

"What are you making?"

"Pancakes. I'd use a griddle but we never had one. We preferred the frying pan." She poured some batter into the black frying pan and waited for a bit while taking out syrup and stuff. "Chocolate milk or plain?"

"I've never had chocolate milk for breakfast before…" Pietro muttered.

"Chocolate it is!" She yanked another jug out of the fridge and set it in front of him with two plastic cups before turning back to the pancake and flipping it over.

"Thank you," he said out of habit. He poured some of the milk into both cups.

"So, can I ask you a question?"

"I do not see why not."

"What does 'dragul meu' mean? I don't speak any Romanian or Sokovian or whatever."

"It means 'my friend'," he lied.

"Ah! Okay!" She didn't notice the small blush of guilt tint his cheeks. "After I eat I gotta run back to the Tower. Feel free to make yourself at home, just don't break anything." She chuckled and passed him a plate with four pancakes stacked on it. After turning off the stove she slid onto the kitchen stool next to him and drowned her breakfast in syrup. She ate at a normal human pace, but it was still fairly quick. Obviously she was in a hurry to get back. "I hate to leave you so quick, but I promised Clint I'd be home and I don't want him to kill me."

"He would not be able to kill you," Pietro remarked, good humor twinkling in his electric blue eyes. "He loves you too much and you are too fast."

She chuckled appreciatively, stood up, and started to clean up. "Just rinse your plate when you're done and put it in the dishwasher on the bottom shelf. I'll take care of it later. I gotta run. See you later!" She gave him a strong hug and took off—before reappearing again. "The spare key is under the potted plant on the left of the front door if you plan on leaving, by the way," she informed him before vanishing with a streak of purple.

* * *

"Clint! I'm back!" she shouted to the intercom when she entered the bottom floor of the Tower. "Guys?! Where are you?" In about two minutes she had the entire Tower searched. Everyone was gone. But she knew they weren't. "FRIDAY, scan for thermal radiation in the building," she ordered.

 _I miss JARVIS,_ she thought to herself. The new program wasn't quite as fast or comprehensive.

"There is no one in the building," the accented voice remarked.

"Uh-huh. Sure," Violet-Sky muttered sarcastically. So she ran to the basement. Technically that counted as _under_ the building—not _in_ the building—so FRIDAY could have misinterpreted.

She was right. The Avengers were all chilling in the basement, apparently playing Truth or Dare.

"What, no one thought to invite me?" she joked.

"How was your parents' house?" Clint asked.

"Conducive. I'd go so far as to add therapeutic."

"That's good. Wanna join us?"

"Sure."

"Good. 'Cause it's your turn," Natasha remarked. "So, truth or dare?"

Taking a dare from the Avengers could be dangerous to her dignity. But so could truth. At least with truth she didn't have to run up the side of a building—which was possible she just didn't think she could do it. For a few moments she was silent, thinking carefully. "Truth," she decided. Natasha raised her eyebrows thoughtfully.

"First crush?" the assassin asked.

Violet-Sky sighed heavily and laughed. "Oh man." She paused to think. "I think it was one of my old neighbors when I was about five. His name was Harrison—we actually share the same birthday. He moved when we were fourteen to Colorado."

"Was he cute?" Tony inquired.

"By your standards or mine?" Violet-Sky challenged.

"Yours," Steve put in.

"Sure he was cute. Red hair. Freckles. Hazel eyes. I was taller than him for a long time though."

"Okay. Now you get to ask one of us," Natasha said.

"Clint: truth or dare?" Violet-Sky asked without even a pause to pick someone.

The older archer shrugged. "Truth."

"Worst date you've ever been on." Violet-Sky shot a glance at Steve—who was chuckling.

"Ouch. That's a hard one," Clint commented. "Probably one with Laura, actually. I think I tripped on something and dumped food all over myself and got it on her shoes. I was so embarrassed I didn't call her for like three weeks until finally she showed up at my apartment with a cake." He turned. "Steve: truth or dare?"

"Hmm… how about dare?" the super soldier decided.

"Do the Gangnam Style dance."

"I don't know how!" Cap protested.

That was how they spent the afternoon, playing Truth or Dare and moving on to Whispers.

"Psst, Vi!" Steve hissed in her ear. "Let's go get ready for our date!"

"Right." She bolted off up the stairs.

* * *

 **End Note: There's gonna be a date! Oh my goodness! (My characters all have more exciting love lives than I do...)**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: Kelsoc, Callie, Wren, everyone else, I would just like to say from the bottom of my heart: I AM SO FREAKING SORRY. I had NO idea I hadn't updated since January! I totally lost track and** ** _Duct Tape and Safety Pins_** **just kind of took over (and arguably it's better, just saying...) but here's the new chapter. Please don't hate me! (Maybe I'll try to put up quite a few chapters in the next couple weeks in hopes that I make up for my lapse...?)**

* * *

 _Ding-dong!_ The door between Violet-Sky's apartment-floor and the elevator went off. She zipped over to it and opened it up.

 _Dang!_ Her thoughts made her blush a bit. _He looks good in a suit!_ Not that she'd never seen him in one before, she was just always impressed. She herself was in a short, brightly colored dress and black flats. Her hair was out of its usual braid and straightened again so that it didn't look as thick. Steve picked up a lock from her shoulder and toyed with it. "I like it," he decided. She grinned as he kissed the top of her head and offered her his arm. "Come, Miss Barton. We have a night ahead of us."

Violet-Sky giggled and took his elbow. "Of course, Mr. Rogers."

They took the elevator down to the main floor and walked to a restaurant nearby. "So, you never told me how your dinner with your old friend went."

"Well. It went well." She pointedly left out the bit where the kitchen exploded, but he didn't need to know that she'd been in _that_ restaurant. "We talked, we caught up. I found out what he's been up to—he's going to NYU to be an electrical engineer—it was great."

"And your hair changed while you were out right?" His tone sounded like he was testing her to see if she had lied about some part of her story—the way Clint would have.

"No. It was when I got home and took a shower."

That seemed to satisfy him.

"Remember last year when we ordered room service for five people and the lady was shocked that there were only two of us and four meals were for you?"

"Yeah…" Steve edged.

"We're almost evenly balanced now. My metabolism also runs about four times faster than an average person."

Her soldier laughed as they were seated. "Well then, it's good someone understands why I'm almost always hungry." She chuckled.

The meal went swimmingly up until the argument about the difference in their ages.

"I'm too old for you!"

"The time on the ice doesn't count!" Violet-Sky pointed out.

Steve sighed, putting his head in his hand for a moment before looking her dead-on in the eye. "I know! I'm not counting the time on the ice—that would _definitely_ make me way too old for you. As it is, I went under in nineteen-forty-five. I was twenty-seven. I woke up in two-thousand eleven. That was four years ago. That means, not counting the time in the ice, I'm thirty-one. You're not quite nineteen yet. If that doesn't constitute 'too old' I don't know what does."

"Thirteen years isn't the biggest age gap I've ever heard of. One of my friends in high school's parents were eighteen years apart," Violet-Sky countered.

"I understand that you don't think the difference is as dramatic as I do. But you're young. And I don't want you to miss out on any opportunities because you're dating a guy almost twice your age," Steve retorted, trying not to get too heated.

"You're talking like you don't want us to be together," Violet-Sky muttered.

"I _do_ want us to be together," he said. "But I don't want you to miss out on life and living it."

"I'm not!" she protested. "I've lived more in almost nineteen years than some people have in almost ninety!"

"I understand that too. But I'm old. And not just the ninety-seven-years-old thing. I'm too old for you. I _feel_ too old. You deserve someone younger with a more positive outlook on the world," he said. She burst out laughing. It was sarcastic laughter.

"'A more positive outlook'?" she scoffed. "Coming from the guy _so_ positive that Wanda couldn't even fish out something for a nightmare!"

"That's not what I'm getting at."

"Oh then. Please. Go on."

"I've seen a lot. A war so terrible there was more carnage than I can remember. An alien invasion—"

"That I was present during," she sassed.

"—that almost killed millions of people if not more. The maniac brother of one of my teammates terrorizing my team and a seventeen-year-old girl who barely knew us. HYDRA coming back and destroying the Triskellion. My best friend brainwashed into an assassin who didn't remember me. My girlfriend kidnapped in broad daylight when I was ten minutes away. And a sassy genocidal robot with a massive army of himself behind him. I may still think that people are inherently good at heart, but that doesn't mean I trust them. That doesn't mean I don't see enemies everywhere. You deserve someone better than that. What if one day I made a mistake and saw you as an enemy too?"

"All I'm hearing from this whole argument is you're too old for me and you want to break up because of it. Correct me if I'm wrong," she snapped. Steve noticed that he might have gone a little too far when the whites of her eyes started to tint red. She was fighting back tears—probably more to not smear her nice makeup than anything else to be honest—and glaring at him.

"I don't want you to miss out on life. If that means not being in a relationship with me, yes. You're correct."

"Dating _Captain America_ is not making me miss out on anything, trust me."

"But how can you know you love me if you don't date anyone else to see if there's something about me you don't actually like?"

Violet-Sky banged her forehead on the table, causing the utensils to rattle. "Why can't you see that we're running in circles? Yes, you're thirteen years older than me. Yes, I'm technically still a teenager. But I've seen more than other girls my age. I feel old too. I may _act_ like a chipper immature twerp when I'm in a good mood but I have an old soul. I was stuck in a _subway_ during an alien invasion after my cousin saved my life, never knowing if someone I loved was dying out there or not. Not long after I lost my parents to an explosion caused by my guardian's older brother—who later shot me and caused me to get this—" She pointed forcefully at the burn scar that ran from shoulder to wrist. "—and then I watched helplessly as the Triskellion was destroyed and there was nothing I could do to help. Then I had to go on the run. After that, I was kidnapped by HYDRA and brutally experimented on. If I could just download my memories into your head so you could experience the surgeries and injections and whatnot, you would know why I don't feel almost nineteen. I feel like I'm in my forties. I've lived a life."

"I want to be with you more than anyone else—even Peggy. But I want you to be happy."

"And I am. With you."

"I don't deserve you!"

"Oh please! If anything _I_ don't deserve _you_! You have a heart of gold! Mine is mostly ice!"

"Let me rephrase this as best as I can: I want to be with you. But I'm just too old and too tired and I don't deserve you. We would both do good to see other people. Once we've done that, we can get back together and see if we still love each other," Steve said. Violet-Sky fought to keep her lower lip from quivering. Her vision was swimming with the tears that were threatening to spill over.

She shook her head. "I can't. I can't," she muttered. Leaving a small imprint of where she'd been in purple, she ran off.

What had started as a nice date with her boyfriend had turned into him breaking up with her. Steve had broken up with her.

* * *

 **End Note: Yeah... not the best chapter to have not updated for ages. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you all hate me now. I get it.**

 **To "Wren (Guest)": The rain isn't particularly important, actually. It was raining where I live when I wrote it and I have this annoying habit of including whatever weather is going on at the time in my story because that's when I get story ideas involving weather. So don't worry too much about it. The Loki thing was a bit of a weird thing that ran on way too long based off a dream I had and if I went back and rewrote UaVS2... it probably wouldn't have been so long... if I even would have included it at all. But bear in mind I wrote most of this series while in high school so I'm surprised I even finished them at all. I have no idea why I devoted so much time to that certain plot thing at all. Even I think it was a little forced looking back. And yeah... Killing off Quicksilver was a stupid move. Don't even worry about leaving long reviews on anything, though! I love long reviews! They're my favorite!**

 **Thanks for reading! Sorry for that long break!**

 **~Cass**


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: Yeah. Everyone hates me for that last chapter. I know it was bad. I hated writing it. But... to be honest... I kinda felt like it was necessary. Maybe it wasn't. But what's done is done. I'm going to go hide somewhere so y'all don't throw things at me.**

* * *

Violet-Sky ran to the Tower first and packed up the clothes she kept there and a few of her other things—the rest were in Clint's New York apartment. For the moment, she couldn't even bear the thought of living in the same building as her new ex. Seeing him every day would just be too painful on her heartstrings.

 _Being a hormonal teenager sucks!_ Violet-Sky thought bitterly as she finished putting her things into her backpack. She wanted more than anything else to have handled that situation with a level head and a calm mind. But _no!_ She had to let her emotions blind her! She ran up to Clint's floor, kissed his forehead, wrote a note explaining what happened before he even knew she was really there, and ran out the door, down the stairs, and onto the streets.

She ran towards her old house, the tears of anger and hurt getting pushed back by the high-velocity wind. She was so distracted by her anger and frustration that she didn't notice that she was fast-approaching someone on the sidewalk.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist and shoulders, slamming her to a stop that her intense forward momentum didn't like. It caused her and whoever had grabbed her to go falling to the ground, rolling a few times until the other person was on top of her. At impact, the "oof!" she heard sounded male. One of his legs was between both of hers. His arms had protected her and her pack from any major harm. Her eyes couldn't see his face but she'd know that silvery hair with dark roots anywhere.

"Pietro?" she asked, voice quivering through tears.

"Comoara mea," he greeted. There was a smile in his voice. "Dry your tears, love. What troubles you?" He picked himself up before hauling her to her feet.

She sniffed, more in anger than sadness. "Steve broke up with me—over _nothing!_ He just thought he was too old for me!" she ranted, burying her face into her friend's powerful chest. His hand reached up and stroked her hair, trace amounts of brown pigment breaking off, leaving it a tiny bit more matching silvery color. He felt her hot tears soak into his sports shirt. He put his nose in her thick mane and breathed in the scent of strawberries and cream.

"Shh, love. It is alright. I am here. I am right here," he soothed comfortingly. Her arms held onto his back, gripping him as tightly as she could. She let herself go so far as to practically snuggle him, grateful for his kindness. She couldn't deny that over the course of that year in the cell next to his in Sokovia, they had grown quite close.

For the moment, at the very least, she just wanted to stay where she was and let it out.

Then she wanted to go kick Steve's butt until the next Tuesday.

"Do you want to talk about it? What else did he say?" Pietro asked.

"That I deserved someone younger," Violet-Sky replied bitterly, voice muffled by his shirt.

"To that, I could not agree more," he commented. Violet-Sky actually chuckled. "Come, love, let us get you a drink."

"I don't drink alcohol and I'm allergic to caffeine," she pointed out.

"I remember. You mentioned that once. I was thinking more… hot chocolate."

She nodded. "Okay."

Pietro grinned, picked her up, and ran her back to her parents' house, letting her snuggle against him with her face still hidden in his chest. He set her gently down on the loveseat and went to make her hot chocolate. She sat almost silently, drying her tears and trying to get her eyes to stop being red—she found out that rubbing them didn't help much. The sting of the breakup had faded, leaving behind unadulterated anger that she had to fight to control—but she had it suppressed by the time Pietro came back with two mugs of hot chocolate. He handed her one and kept the other, wrapping his free arm around her shoulders.

She curled her legs up onto the loveseat and leaned against him. She raised the mug to her lips and took a tentative sip to make sure it wasn't too hot. "Sometimes I wish I had never been found. I'd rather stay at the mercy of Strucker's experiments than go through this stupid emotional roller coaster I've been on since I was found like a week ago. I don't like emotions!"

"They are not all bad," Pietro commented. "Sometimes, they give us a reason to do something that maybe we would rather not do."

"Like what?" Violet-Sky's voice sounded raw.

"For example, it was Wanda's idea to volunteer for Strucker's experiments. I did not know if it was a _good_ idea, but because I love her and she is the only family I have, I joined her and signed up as well—especially if it meant I would be better able to protect her."

"You're a good brother, Quicksilver," Violet-Sky remarked.

"I was. And then I died."

She smiled slightly and took another drink of her hot chocolate. He copied her. After several long minutes of silence, they finished their drinks and set them on the coffee table that rested between the sofas and the TV.

They sat in the same position until the outside grew dark—something like three hours later. The long early summer days were refreshing and warm after the dank cell.

Finally, Pietro put his finger under her chin and tilted her face up so she could meet his eyes. "I am sorry for what happened between you and your soldier," he said genuinely. "However, I cannot say I am sorry that you are no longer spoken for, comoara mea." Violet-Sky gave him a small grin—the flirtatious twerp!—and just looked at his electric blue eyes for a moment.

"What does that mean? 'Comoara mea'?"

"Something that can wait until a later time. I think it is time you had a good sleep." He picked her up again and took her upstairs to the threshold of her bedroom. "This is where I leave you for the night. Sleep well, and dream sweetly, dragul meu." He set her down and kissed her hand.

"You too, my friend," she replied, still having no idea what "dragul meu" really meant.

* * *

 **End Note: "Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger, the person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger." (Name that song!)**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **~Cass**


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: Yeah, yeah, yeah I didn't finish posting this back in NOVEMBER or so whenever it was that I promised that. Everyone waiting for this story hates me for taking so long. Yada yada yada. I get it. HERE'S YOUR CHAPTER!**

* * *

Her dreams were much better than they'd been when she'd first been found. Less terrifying and much more relaxing. They involved fewer needles and scalpels and more music and dancing.

When she woke up the next morning to the sunlight filtering through her curtains and the songs of birds outside her window, the muscles in her shoulders—tense with stress from the night before—had unwound considerably. She grinned as she slid out of her sheets and felt her feet hit the floor. She didn't really remember taking off her date dress and flats, but she must have because she was in her pajamas and bare feet.

She left her room and went downstairs. It was devoid of life. Pietro was probably still asleep. With a sort of "I'm okay" sigh, she went about pulling out the toaster and the chocolate milk. If Pietro came down while she was making toast and wanted some, great. If not, he could make himself something.

A light breeze tickled the back of her neck, her long curtain of unbraided hair fluttering.

Pietro took her shoulders, turned her to face him, and kissed her.

The guilt she had once felt over kissing him was gone—she was single again so she could do whatever she liked. To be honest with herself, she didn't know if she liked that feeling or not.

The front door opened, but neither of them noticed it. "Vi? I saw your note last night but thought I'd give you some time to sleep it off. I'm sorry about what happened with Steve and—" Hawkeye stopped talking abruptly as he made his way from the front door to the kitchen. "Oh my—!" He cut himself off before he could finish because he didn't quite trust himself to not say something that would earn him a reprimand from his very clean-mouthed ward.

Violet-Sky pulled herself away from the other speedster and registered who it was. A silent communication passed between her and Pietro and in a split second they had him pinned against the wall. "You can't tell _anyone_ that he's still alive—not even Wanda. Do you understand?" she demanded.

"Yeah… why?"

"Because she has had time to move on from my death. And the others… well… they would not believe you anyway. No point in telling them," Pietro retorted, a slightly cocky grin on his face.

"I won't tell them on one condition," Clint said. "You two tell me why the h—" He stopped. "—heck you two were kissing!"

Violet-Sky pointed to Pietro and he pointed to Violet-Sky. "He started it," she said at the same moment Pietro said, "I cannot help that she is beautiful." Neither of them really heard or processed what the other had told the archer, but Clint stared between the two of them.

"You two are bizarre," he decided.

"May I join Violet in watching over your children tonight?" Pietro asked suddenly, letting his grip on Hawkeye go.

"You saved my life and made it so I could return to them. I don't see why not—as long as you keep your hands off her," Clint answered, nodding his head in Violet-Sky's direction as she too let him go. _He's taking this very well,_ she thought, feeling impressed. "Okay. I'm going to forget I saw you two kissing, and I'm going to forget that I saw _you_ altogether." He pointed at Pietro. "Vi. I'm sorry about your breakup. But you two have weirded me out, so I'm going to go back to the Tower, and then I'm going to the farm to get ready for my date. Do you want me to take you two on the Quinjet or do you wanna run?"

"Come pick us up. The farm is a while away and I don't want to lose all my energy before I get there. We'll need all of it to take care of the kids," Violet-Sky replied. Clint nodded. "Plus, there's plenty of room for the Quinjet in the backyard—the neighbors won't notice, I promise." The older archer nodded and snuck between the two speedsters to get to the front door. He waved over his shoulder as he opened the door and moved to go through it.

"Alright. See ya kids! I'll pick you up around five!" he called.

"Bye Clint!" Violet-Sky called back.

The door clicked shut.

"Where were we?" Pietro asked. "And, just as importantly, what are we going to do all day?"

Violet-Sky slid her arms around his neck. "I think we were somewhere around… here." She let herself kiss him. "And I think I have an idea of what we can do. There's an old SHIELD gym nearby. I was thinking of doing some training." She felt Quicksilver smile against her lips.

"I think I like the idea of that."

"Let me go get out of my pajamas." She was there and gone and back again in the space of a few seconds, dressed and ready. Pietro smiled and copied her.

"Okay, boss," he started. "What training are you up for?" She guided him to the gym and they slid in.

"I wanna show you this." She picked up a bow and slung a quiver of arrows over her shoulder. She started muttering. "Okay. Assuming you can pull more than four times the amount I can… you're going to want to start on… probably this one." She picked up a gnarly black recurve bow that had a draw weight of about fifty pounds. She handed it and its quiver to him. "And if that one's too easy, we'll work our way up from there," she said. Her own bow had a draw weight of about fifty pounds too. She just wanted to work her way up to try and find the right weight of a recurve for him. He took it from her and hefted it, feeling its balance and weight.

"Hmm," was all he said.

"Put this on your arm," she instructed, passing him an arm guard.

"What for?"

"If you hold it wrong, the bowstring can scrape off your skin or give you a bruise or a blood blister. I've had all three. Put. It. On." There was a very obvious threat in her voice. So he complied. "Now, I think you should wear this too, for your first try." She gave him a strangely shaped leather thing. "This is called a tab and it keeps your fingers from hurting or getting scraped when you release the bowstring."

"Okay…" It was very obvious he had no idea what she was talking about, but he mimicked her movements to put on the arm guard and the tab. She did it with precision and silence contemplation, like she was already aiming for a bull's-eye.

"Alright. So hold it like this." She held her bow parallel to the ground in her left hand. He copied. "Now nock an arrow." With her right hand she pulled one out of her back holster and snapped it onto the string just above the bead that was there to guide it. With a little bit less grace, he managed to pull out an arrow and copy her. "Now, while you raise the bow, pull back—but only use your middle three fingers. That's what the tab is for." She did and he copied. Since he was stronger than her on the same draw weight, his went back a little easier than hers. "Now I'm going to step back, and you're going to shoot." She turned her bow so it was still drawn but aimed far away from Pietro and took a step back so she was behind him. "Whenever you're ready."

The tall speedster peered through the sight, aiming for the center of the target with one eye closed.

"Easy. Steady," Violet-Sky whispered.

He released his grip on the string.

 _Wssh! Thunk!_ The arrow struck a little bit above and a little bit to the right of the center.

"Now stand behind me and I'll shoot."

"Your bow does not have one of these," Pietro commented, pointing to the sight.

Violet-Sky shook her head. "I don't need one." She whipped her bow back around so it was aimed at the target and gave her friend a moment to get behind her.

 _Twang! Thud!_ The arrow didn't make a single sound through the air until it pierced the center of the target. She grinned and turned to Pietro. "That was… impressive," he said. Her bright smile grew wider.

"You're just jealous because I hit the middle," she joked.

"Never, comoara mea."

* * *

 **End Note: I hope this is helping everyone not hate me.**

 **To everyone who reviewed, thank you all so much! I know this story has been on the backburner for MONTHS, but it still means a lot to me that you're all still here!**

 **Thanks for reading! I love you guys!**

 **~Cass**


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